Leiophyllum. ERICACE2E. 43 



18. LEDUM, L. Labrador Tea. {Jifiov, ancient name of the Cistus.) 

 — Low shrubs, with alternate persistent leaves entire and more or less resinous 

 dotted, slightly fragrant when bruised. Flowers white, developed in early sum- 

 mer from separate and mostly terminal buds, their scales and bracts well imbri- 

 cated, thin and caducous. Stamens and the (persistent) style fully as long as the 

 petals. Stigma obscurely annulate. Pedicels slender, recurved in fruit. — We have 

 all the species. 



# Leaves densely tomentose beneath, the wool soon ferrugineous, and the margins strongly revo- 

 lute : inflorescence all terminal. 



L. palustre, L. A span (in the arctic form) to 2 feet high : leaves linear (half to inch and 

 a half long): stamens 10: capsule short oval. — Fl. Dan. t. 1031; Lodd. Cab. t. 560. — 

 Bogs, Newfoundland, Labrador, and through the arctic regions to Alaska and Aleutian 

 Islands. (N. Eu. & Asia.) 



Var. dilatatum, "Wahl. : approaching the next, having broader leaves and some- 

 times long-oval capsules. — N. W. Coast, Sitka, &c. 



L. latif olium, Ait. A foot to a yard high, erect : leaves oblong or linear-oblong (an 

 inch or two long), commonly half inch wide, very obtuse : stamens 5 to 7 : capsule oblong, 

 acutish. — Lam. 111. t. 363; Jaeq. Ic. Rar. t. 464. L. Graenlandicum, Retz. Scand. L. palustre, 

 var. latifolium, Michx., &e. L. Canudense, Lodd. Cab. t. 1049. — Newfoundland and Lab- 

 rador (Greenland), through the wooded regions to Puget Sound, and south in the Atlantic 

 States to "Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. 

 * # Leaves glabrous both sides : inflorescence sometimes also lateral. — Ledodendnm, Nutt. 



L. glandulosum, Nutt. Shrub 2 to 6 feet high, stout: leaves oblong or oval, or ap- 

 proaching lanceolate (one or two inches long), pale or whitish and minutely resinous- 

 atomiferous beneath : inflorescence often compound and crowded : calyx 5-parted : capsules 

 oval, retuse. — Trans. Am. Phil. Soc. n. ser. viii. 270; Gray, Bot. Calif, i. 459. — Woods 

 and swamps, coast of California from Mendocino Co. northward, and through the Sierra 

 Nevada ; thence north and east to Br. Columbia and northern Rocky Mountains. 



19. BEJARIA, Mutis. (Written Befaria by the younger Linnaeus, &c, 

 but originally "Bejaria, Mutis, ex Zea, Annal." iii. 151. Zea was a pupil of 

 Mutis, and he declares that the name was given in honor of Bejar, professor of 

 Botany at Cadiz, and an intimate friend of Mutis.) — All but the following species 

 tropical American. 



B. racemosa, Vent. Shrub 3 or 4 feet high, evergreen : branches sparsely hispid : leaves 

 alternate, sessile, oblong, coriaceous, glabrous, pale : flowers in pedunculate and sometimes 

 paniculate naked racemes terminating leafy branches : bracts and bractlets subulate, de- 

 ciduous : calyx obtusely 7-lobed : petals spatulate, white tinged with red, an inch long. — 

 Hort. Cels, t. 51 ; Ell. Sk. i. 533. Befaria paniculata, Michx. Fl. i. 280, t. 26. Pine barrens, 

 Florida and Georgia near the coast : fl. summer. 



20. LEIOPHYLLUM, Pers. Sand Myrtle. (Jem?, smooth, cpvllm; 

 leaf, from the smooth and shining foliage.) — A single species, varying consider- 

 ably : flowering late in spring; the coriaceous scales or bracts resembling reduced 

 leaves. 



L. buxifolium, Ell. Shrub resembling Dwarf Box in miniature, a span or two high, 

 very glabrous, much branched, thickly leafy : leaves alternate or opposite, oblong or oval, 

 veinless, a fourth to half inch long, slightly petioled : flowers profuse, in terminal umbelli- 

 form corymbs : corolla white or rose-color (3 or 4 lines broad) : anthers brown or purple. 

 — L. buxifolium & L. serpyllifolium, DC. Prodr. vii. 730. L. thymifolium, Don, Syst. iii. 851. 

 Ledum buxifolium, Berg, in Act. Ups. 1777, t. 3, f. 1 ; Michx. Fl. i. 260 ; Lodd. Cab. t. 52. 

 L. llu/mifolium, Lam. 111. t. 363. Dendrium buxifolium, Desv. Jour. Bot. i. 36. Ammi/rsine 

 buxifolia, Pursh; Lindl. Bot. Reg. t. 531. Fischera buxifolia, Swartz in Act. Mosc. v. 16.— 

 Sandy pine barrens, New Jersey to Florida, and the mountains of Carolina. The state 



