556 MENZIESIA. [CLASS viii. order i. 



British Flora, vol. i. p. 179. — Lyndley, Synopsis, p. 173. — Andromeda 

 ccerulea, Linn. 



Root woody, with slender branched fibres. Stem branched, woody, 

 naked and decumbent in the lower part, crowded with leaves above, 

 round, dark brown and rough with the scars of the old leaves, other- 

 wise smooth. Leaves numerous, crowded on all sides of the stem, and 

 spreading, linear, with an obtuse point, the margin rough, with small 

 teeth, of a smooth dark shining green above, with a central channel, 

 paler beneatb, with a hairy mid-rib and short stout footstalk. Flowers 

 mostly several, terminating the stem, aggregate, each elevated on a 

 slender round peduncle, about two inches long, scattered over with 

 red glandular hairs, and bearing a solitary drooping^ojwr, large, of a 

 beautiful pale blueish purple. Calyx of five lanceolate spreading seg- 

 ments, the corolla ovate, contracted at the mouth into an urn-shape, 

 the limb of five short roundish teeth. Stamens ten, inserted into the 

 base of the corolla, with slender awl-shaped filaments and ovate yel- 

 lowish anthers. Style longer than the stamens, with a simple obtuse 

 stigma. 



Habitat. — Dry heathy moors; rare. Aviemore, Strathspey. — Mr. 

 Brown, of Perth, and in the Western Isles of Shiant. — Mr. G. Don 

 and Dr. De Ramm. 



Shrub ; flowering in June and July. 



This pretty little plant is more common in North America than \<ith 

 us, and is frequently grown in our gardens, requiring the same kind of 

 soil and treatment in its cultivation as the Ericas ; but it is not a very 

 free flowerer. 



2. M. poli'folia, Juss. (Fig. 634.) Irish Menziesia, or St. Dabeoc's 

 Heath. Leaves ovate, the margins revolute, dark gi'een and shining 

 above, white and downy beneath ; flowers in terminal leafy racemes ; 

 corolla with a four-cleft limb, and eight stamens. 



English Flora, vol.ii. p. 223. — Hooker, British Flora, vol. i. p. 180. — 

 Lyndley, Synopsis, p. 173. — Erica Dobeoci, Linn. — English Botany, 

 t. 35. 



/5. alba. Flowers pure white. 



Boot woody, fibrous. Stem erect, from one to two feet high, simple, 

 or mostly branched, leafy, clothed above with soft glandular hairs. 

 Leaves numerous, alternate, or scattered, frequently in the lower part 

 in whorls of three, spreading, ovate, entire, dark, smooth, shining green 

 above, with a central channel, often scattered over with rather stout 

 hairs, tipped with a small globose gland, the margins rolled back, and 

 the under side white, from a thick covering of woolly hairs. Floivers 

 in a terminal leafy raceme, numerous, drooping, on a short recurved 

 axillary peduncle, hairy, as well as the calyx, which is deeply cleft 

 into four lanceolate segments. Corolla about half an inch long, of a 

 purplish red colour, ovate, contracted at the mouth, obtusely four 

 angled, the limb of four recurved short segments. Stamens eight, 



