XX. 1. THE ANDROMEDA. 371 
stipules. The flowers are usually perfect, symmetrical and 
regular. ‘The calyx is usually four- or five-cleft; the corolla 
four-parted, rarely five-parted, with the parts alternate with 
thosc of the calyx; the stamens are as many as the segments 
of the corolla and alternate with them, or twice as many, in- 
serted in the base of the corolla, or in the edge of a disk at the 
bottom of the calyx; anthers two-celled, opening by a terminal 
pore or cleft, and with often a pointed bristle projecting above 
or below. The ovary is free, with cells as numerous as the 
segments of the calyx and alternate with them, and many-seed- 
ed; or rarely one-celled. The fruit is capsular, or rarely berry- 
like, and generally many-celled and many-seeded. 
In their properties, they are almost universally more or less 
astringent and diuretic, and many of them abound in tannin. 
But the different tribes have different properties. The heaths 
of the north of Europe are used by the inhabitants to tan leather, 
to dye yarn, as an ingredient in beer, and as a material for 
thatching ; and the seeds afford food to many kinds of birds. 
Most of the plants of the Rhododendron group are of a doubtful 
character, and to some animals several of them are poisonous. 
The fleshy berries of some of the Andromeda group are an 
agreeable and healthy article of food. Honey made by bees 
that feed on the flowers of the European heaths is said to be of 
an inferior quality, and that from bees fed on some species of 
rhododendron is considered poisonous. The pleasantly acidu- 
lous berries of the Strawberry Tree, A’rbutus unedo, are eaten in 
the south of Europe, and in Corsica an agreeable wine is pre- 
pared from them. Its bark is very astringent, and, in Spain 
and the East, is employed in tanning. 
THE ANDROMEDA TRIBE. ANDROMESDEZ. Don. 
Shrubs unth a capsular fruit and deciduous corolla. 
XX. 1. THE ANDROMEDA. ANDRO'MEDA. L. 
Humble shrubs, found in North America and also in northern 
Asia and Europe; with a five-cleft calyx, with acute segments, 
simple at base; a globose corolla with a contracted mouth; and 
ten included anthers with bearded filaments, and short, one- 
awned anthers. 
