356 BOTANY AND PHARMACOGNOSY. 



b. ERICACE^ OR HEATH FAMILY.— This is a large 

 family and the plants are widely distributed, especially in the 

 northern mountainous parts of both the Eastern and Western Con- 

 tinent. They vary from perennial herbs to trees. The flowers 

 are usually regular, the stamens being mostly 2-spurred (Fig. 

 8i, S), and the fruit is either a superior or inferior drupe or 

 berry (Fig. 134, ^). 



Fig. 171. A group of saprophytic higher plants (humus-plants). The taller ones at 

 the left are Indian pipe (Monotropa uniflora), and those to the right are the false beech- 

 drops (Monotropa Hypopiiys). 



Arctostaphylos Uva-Ursi is a low branching shrub which trails 

 or spreads on the ground. The leaves are used in medicine 

 (p. 601). The flowers are small, white or pink, few and in short 

 racemes. The fruit is a red, globular drupe. 



Trailing arbutus (Epigcea repens) is a trailing, shrubby, hairy 

 plant with broadly elliptical or ovate, coriaceous, evergreen leaves 

 and white or rose-colored, fragrant flowers which are either 

 perfect, with styles and filaments of varying length, or dioecious. 

 The leaves contain similar constituents to those in Uva Ursi and 

 Chimaphila. 



