ERICACE^. 



531 



A gregarious species, often occupying 

 large tracts of open country, like the 

 Scotch H. ; ranging all round the Me- 

 diterranean from Spain to Greece, Tur- 

 key, and Egypt, and ascending along the 

 Atlantic to Cornwall and the south coast 

 of Ireland, but never penetrating very 

 far inland. Fl. summer, rather early. 



Fig. 634. 



VIII. WINTERGREEN. PYKOLA. 



Low herbs, with a slender, shortly creeping stock ; orbicular or ovate, 

 nearly radical leaves ; and white or greenish, drooping flowers, either 

 solitary or several in a short raceme, on leafless, erect peduncles. 

 Sepals 5, small. Petals 5, distinct or slightly joined at the base, 

 forming at first a spreading corolla, which persists round the capsule, 

 assuming a globular shape. Stamens 10. Capsule 5-celled, opening 

 by slits in the middle of the cells. 



A small genus, confined to the northern hemisphere both in the new 

 and the old world; allied to the Heaths in all essential characters, 

 although so different in habit and foliage. It has been divided by 

 modern botanists into almost as many genera as it has species. 



Flowers solitary 1. One-flowered W. 



Flowers several in a raceme. 



Leaves ovate, pointed. Flowers small, in a close one- 

 sided raceme 5. Serrated W, 



Leaves ovate or rounded, obtuse. Flowers in a loose 

 raceme, usually few. 

 Style much longer than the corolla, and curved . 2. Larger W. 

 Style longer than the corolla, and straight ... 3. Intermediate W. 

 Style not longer than the corolla 4. Common W. 



