282 THE HEATH FAMILY. [Loiseleuria. 



On mountain moors, in northern and Arctic Europe, Asia, and 

 America, and in the high alpine chains of central Europe. In Britain 

 only in the Highland mountains from Ben Lomond northwards. FL 

 spring. 



VI. MENZIESIA. MENZIESIA. 



Heath-like, low shrubs, with scattered leaves, and blue or pink 

 flowers, in terminal racemes. Sepals 4 or 5. Corolla deciduous, ovoid, 

 with 4 or 5 short lobes. Stamens 8 or 10. Capsule free, with 4 or 5 

 cells, opening in as many valveo by the splitt",/ig of the partitions. 



A small northern and west European genus, artificially distinguished 

 from Andromeda by the manner in which the capsule opens, from Erica 

 by the deciduous corolla, from Loiseleuria by the number of stamens. 

 It has been divided into almost as many genera as there are 

 species. 



Flowers pink, with 4 lobes. Leaves white underneath . . 1. M. polifolia. 



Flowers blue, with 5 lobes. Leaves green on both sides . . . 2. M. ccerulea. 



1. M. polifolia, Sm. (fig. 635). St Dabeoc's Heath.— A low shrub, 

 rather straggling at the base, with ascending flowering branches, 

 clothed with short, rather viscid hairs. Leaves small, the lower ones 

 ovate, the upper ones narrow, all green above, and very white under- 

 neath. Flowers very elegant, nearly 6 lines long, pink, or sometimes 

 white, drooping from short pedicels, in a loose terminal raceme. Corolla 

 with 4 very short, spreading lobes. Stamens 8. Capsule 4-celled. 

 Dabeocia polifolia, Don. 



A strictly west European plant ; common on the heathy wastes of 

 the Asturias and south-western France, and extending up to Connemara 

 in Ireland, but unknown in Great Britain. Fl. summer. 



2. M. cserulea, Sm. (fig. 636). Blue M. — A small, much branched 

 shrub. Leaves evergreen, crowded, linear, green on both sides, and 

 bordered with minute glandular teeth, scarcely visible without a mag- 

 nifying-glass. Flowers of a purplish blue, on long pedicels, clustered 



3 or 4 together, in very short terminal racemes or umbels. Corolla 



4 or 5 lines long, with 5 very short lobes. Stamens 10. Capsule 5- 

 celled. Phyllodoce taxifolia, Salisb. 



On mountain-heaths, in northern and Arctic Europe, Asia, and America. 

 In Britain only on the mountain, called the Sow of Athol, in Perthshire, 

 where it is exceedingly rare. Fl. summer. 



VII. ERICA. HEATH. 



Much -branched shrubs, usually low, but in some species attaining 8 

 or 10 feet, with small, entire leaves, usually in whorls of 3 or 4, but 

 sometimes opposite or scattered, and almost always rolled back on 

 their edges. Flowers either axillary or in short terminal racemes or 

 clusters, mostly drooping. Sepals 4, shorter than the corolla. Corolla 

 ovoid, globular, or campanulate (in some exotic species tubular), more 

 or less 4-toothed or lobed, and persisting round the capsule till its 

 maturity. Stamens 8. Capsule free, with 4 cells, opening down the 

 back of the cells, each cell with several seeds. 



