ADDISONIA 5 
(Plate 163) 
PIERIS FLORIBUNDA 
Mountain Fetter-bush 
Native of the southern Alleghanies 
Family ERICACEAE Heat Family 
Andromeda floribunda Pursh; Sims, Bot. Mag. 38: under pl. 1566. 1813. 
Portuna floribunda Nutt. Trans. Am. Phil. Soc. II. 8: 268. 1843. 
Pieris floribunda Benth. & Hook. Gen. Pl. 2: 588. 1876, 
That the flora of our southern Alleghanies should have a goodly 
number of rather locally distributed genera in common with Japan 
and China is interesting. Naturally, the species in these two widely 
separated regions are not identical, although they often parallel 
each other in a striking manner. The subject of the accompanying 
illustration is a plant that stands alone in our flora, but it has 
several relatives in eastern Asia. The heath family, to which it 
belongs, furnishes several other conspicuous examples. 
This fetter-bush is one of those clear-cut species whose characters 
have become so fixed that they show scarcely any variation from 
generation to generation. In fact, the characters are so constant 
that the specimens from all parts of the geographic range look as 
if they might have been gathered from the same shrub. 
The mountains ranging from Virginia to Georgia have developed 
and delivered many plants of the heath family. Most of them 
have at one time or another been introduced into cultivation, both 
in Europe and in America. ‘The present shrub was discovered in 
the first decade of the last century in the mountains of Georgia, by 
John Lyon who was also responsible for the discovery and subse- 
quent introduction of many American plants into Europe. Speci- 
mens were first grown in England in 1811. The plants bloomed, 
and an illustration was published in 1813; it was again illustrated 
in 1824 (Botanical Register, plate 807). 
A mountain-slope clothed with this shrub, when in bloom, is a 
sight never to be forgotten. It is the more conspicuous because of 
its early flowering season—April and May—for there are fewer 
plants then blooming which would detract attention from it. 
Being evergreen it is always a prominent object, with the inflores- 
cetice conspicuous as well as the foliage. The flower-buds are 
formed about ten months before the flowers expand; the fruits 
form quickly after flowering and persist until well into the winter. 
