HEATH FAMILY 



Mairania alphia, Alpine or Black Bearberry, is an 

 Alpine species closely allied to Arctostaphylos nva-ursi. 

 Its leaves are deciduous, its flowers white, and its 

 drupes black. It seeks the summits of the higher 

 mountains of New England and crosses the continent 

 from Labrador to British Columbia. 



LING. HEATHER 



Calliina vulgaris. 



Calluna, Greek, from kalluno, to brush or sweep ; brooms 

 being made of it. 



Low straggling evergreen forming tufts and mats ; the branches 

 ascending three to fifteen inches. Found along the coast, in 

 sandy and rocky soil, from Newfoundland to New Jersey ; natu- 

 ralized or adventive from Europe. 



Leaves. — Opposite, minute, linear, sessile, about one-sixteenth 

 of an inch long, imbricated in four rows, usually two-auricled at 

 the base, three-angled, grooved on the back. 



Flowers. — July, September. Perfect, bell-like, lilac-pink or 

 white, small, borne in terminal one-sided, dense, spike-like 

 racemes. 



Calyx. — Sepals four, colored like the petals, oblong, about an 

 eighth of an inch in length, concealing the corolla. Four bracts 

 at the base. 



Corolla. — Bell-shaped, pink or white, four-parted, slightly 

 twisted, persistent, shorter than the sepals. 



Stamens. — Eight, filaments short, anthers brown, oblong, at- 

 tached to the filaments by their backs, opening by a longitudinal 

 slit, each sac with a dorsal reflexed appendage. 



Pistil. — Ovary depressed-globose, eight-angled ; style slender, 

 exserted. 



Fruit. — Capsule, four-sided, four-celled, four-valved, few seed 

 cd ; seeds ovoid. 



400 



