520 FLOWERS OF FIELD, HILL, AND SWAMP 



soms wild on the borders of lakes in New Jersey. It is low and 

 spreading, growing in clumps in moist, cold, shady places. In the 

 Southern States, where it is more common, it attains a height of 

 20 to 25 feet. Stem grayish, and leaf-stalks yellow or yellowish 

 green, covered with a hoary down. Common through the Alle- 

 ghanies, from New York to Georgia; rare in New England. 



III. Labrador Tea 



Ledum latifolium. — Family, }i&aXh. Color, -wlaxte. Leaves, 

 evergreen, oblong or elliptical, alternate, entire, margins turned 

 back, with reddish wool underneath, on short petioles. Time, 

 June. 



Calyx, s-toothed. Corolla of 5 distinct, oblong, spreading 

 petals. Stamens, 5 to 10. Style, white, turning red. 



A shrub 2 or 3 feet high, whose leaves, when crushed, exhale a 

 pleasant, tea-like fragrance. The flowers are small, in flat, ter- 

 minal bunches, arising from the centre of a scaly bract which is 

 resinous-dotted. It grows in moist woods, on hillsides, in bogs, 

 from New England to Pennsylvania, and northward. 



112. White Alder. Sweet Pepper -bush. Alder- 

 leaved Clethra 



Clethra ainifblia. — Family, Heath. Color, white. Leaves, 

 toothed from below the middle to the apex, entire towards 

 the' base, alternate, sharp -pointed, ovate or wedge-shaped. 

 Time, July and August. 



' Calyx of 5 sepals united into a cup, which closes around 

 the ovary. Corolla of 5 spreading petals. Stamens, 10, of 

 unequal length, with arrow-shaped anthers, which are upright 

 in the bud, turned downward in the flower. Flowers very fra- 

 grant, almost too sweet, in long terminal, erect spikes, remain- 

 ing long on the bush before withering. They are followed by 

 dry, 3 -celled capsules. 



A beautiful shrub, 2 to 8 feet high, seeking wet soil by slow 

 streams, massing in thickets. Near the coast, from New England 

 to Virginia and southward. 



