HEATH FAMILY. 



ERICACE^. 

 Trailing Arbutus. BpigcBa repem. 



May flower. 

 Ground Laurel. 



Found in the woods, or clearings near woods, and upland pastures, 

 during April. It pai'ticularly favors pine woods. 



The branching leafy stalk is low, and trailing close to the ground 

 under dry leaves and dead grass; it is tough and woody-fibred, and 

 rough-hairy to the touch ; rather slender. Its color is rusty brown, and 

 very rich in tone. 



The oval leaf is heart-shaped at the base, with a strong midrib 

 which is somewhat taut and gives the entire margin usually an undu- 

 lating character ; the fibre is tough, and rough to the touch. The color 

 is a strong positive green, more or less worm-eaten, and rust-spotted ; it 

 is evergreen. The leaves are set, on slender rough stems, alternately, 

 at irregular intervals, and more closely near the flowers. The new 

 leaves come after the blossoming time. 



The flower has a tubular corolla, spreading into 5 rounded points ; 

 its color varies from an exquisite white to a deeply tinted rose ; the in- 

 conspicuous stamens show only as a feathery, pale yellow ring in the 

 centre. The 5-parted, pale green calyx is set around with 5 similar 

 leafy bracts. The blossoms, on their little foot-stems, are gathered in 

 close clusters along the ends of the stalk and branches. They exhale 

 a sweet and spicy fragrance. 



The plant, with its green and rusty leaves, hugs the earth so 

 closely that often only the tips of the flowery clusters show here and 

 there among the dried leaves, which almost conceal them from their 

 friendly enemies, whose love of their beauty knows no better manner 

 of exhibiting itself than by tearing the vine up by its roots. This 

 selfish ignorance is fast exterminating the lovely flower in the populous 

 districts of New England, — already it has become in certain places a 

 mere tradition. As though in revenge, nature keeps fast the secret of 

 its growth, and the Arbutus refuses to live in man's care for more than 

 one or two seasons. 



370 



