ERICACEAE. 29 



A small tree with rough bark. Shoots of the year hairy, with 

 long gland-tipped hairs. Leaves evergreen, elliptical-oblanccolate 

 or -obovate, very shortly stalked, acute, sharply and doubly serrate, 

 glabrous, with a few gland-tipped hairs on the edge and on the 

 petioles, green on both sides, paler beneath, with the veins incon- 

 spicuous both above and beneath. Flowers numerous, in terminal 

 drooping lax panicles. Peduncles and pedicels glabrous. Calyx- 

 lobes ciliated. Corolla ovate-urceolate, with 5 reflexed semicircular 

 ciliated teeth. Anthers with the appendages about as long as the 

 filaments. Berry papillose-muricatcd, scarlet-red. 



About the lakes of Killarney ; in woods at Muckross, and at 

 Glen Gariff, near Bantry. Professor Babington considers it truly 

 wild at Killarney. I have seen it on the islands in Lough Gill, 

 co. Sligo, but there it had no doubt been planted. 



Ireland. Shrub or tree. Autumn and Winter. 



A small tree, rarely over 6 or 8 feet high, with spreading branches. 

 Leaves 1^ to 3 inches long, slightly shining, the midrib generally 

 tinged with red, especially at the base. Corolla cream-colour, § to 

 •| inch long. Berry a little larger than a cherry, dim crimson- 

 scarlet, with the surface roughened with long pointed tubercles. 

 The fruit is not mature until the autumn succeeding that in which 

 the flower was produced. 



Strawberry-tree. 



Frencb, Arhousier Fraisier. German, Biirentraube. 



This tree is well known as an ornament of the shrubbery, and is an attractive 

 object at every season of the year. In the autumn it is seen covered with its white 

 bellshaped flowers, slightly tinged with pink, intermixed with its strawberry-like fruit, 

 which, owing to the length of time it takes to ripen, remains ou the trees for twelve 

 months. The Arbutus was known to the Greeks and Romans, but, according to 

 Pliny, was not held in much esteem j for, as the specific name implies, the fruit was 

 considered so unpleasant, that only one could be eaten at a time. There can be no 

 doubt, however, that at one time the fruit was an article of diet with the ancients, 

 and at the present time the Irish peasantry around Killarney, where it grows exten- 

 sively, collect and eat the berries. Virgil recommends the young shoots as winter 

 food for goats, and as fit for basket-work. Horace praises the tree for its shade, and 

 Ovid celebrates its loads of " blushing fruit." Gerarde speaks of it in his time as 

 growing in " some few gardens," and says, " the fruit being ripe is of a gallant red colour, 

 in taste somewhat harsh, and in a manner without any rellish, of which thrushes and 

 blackbirds do feed in winter." Many writers have celebrated its beauty in verse. 

 Mrs. Barbauld writes of 



" The arbutus rearing his scarlet fruit, 

 Luxuriant mantling o'er the craggy steeps." 



