SHJiUBS 531 



brown. Leaves, long, needle- or heath-like, clustered or scat- 

 tered. Time, April. 



Flowers, staminate and pistillate, in terminal heads, sur- 

 rounded by several scaly bractlets, without calyx and corolla. 

 Stamens, usually 3, with long, purple, tufted filaments and 

 brownish anthers, showy. Style, 3 - divided, with sometimes 

 toothed stigmas. Fruit, a small, dry drupe, enclosing 3 or 4 

 nutlets. 



A small, curious shrub, from 6 inches to 2 feet high, found in a 

 few places near the coast, Long Island, New Jersey, and Massa- 

 chusetts to Newfoundland, where it makes, says Thoreau, " pret- 

 ty green mounds, 4 or 5 feet in diameter by i foot high — soft, 

 springy beds for the wayfarer." 



