XX. 8. THE COMMON BEAR BERRY. 381 
hybernate in our climate, gives it its most common name. It 
is also called Chequer Berry, Box Berry, Ivory Plum and 
Mountain Tea. The whole plant has a pleasant, aromatic 
flavor, similar to that of the black birch. 
The leaves are sometimes employed as a substitute for tea, 
or added to communicate an agreeable flavor. An essence and 
an oil are extracted from the plant, which possess, in a high 
degree, the astringent, warming and tonic properties of the 
leaves. An infusion of the leaves has been successfully em- 
ployed to restore the action of the breast, when that fountain 
had been dried. up. 
This plant is found from Quebec, in Canada, to the moun- 
tains of Carolina. 
Xx. 8& THE BEAR BERRY. ARCTOSTAPHYLOS. 
Adanson. 
A genus of twelve or thirteen species of low shrubs with alter- 
nate leaves, terminal, bracteate racemes of white or flesh-colored 
flowers, and red or black fruit, natives of North America, chiefly 
the mountains of Mexico, and rocky woods and sunny mountain 
tops of northern Europe and Asia. Calyx five-parted, persist- 
ent; corolla ovate-pitcher-shaped, with a short five-toothed, re- 
flexed mouth. Stamens ten; filaments hairy, dilated at the 
base; anthers compressed, opening by two pores at the apex, 
with two reflexed awns on the sides; ovary depressed-globose, 
girt with three fleshy scales; style short; stigma obtuse; drupe 
globose, five-, six-, nine- or ten-celled ; cells one-seeded. 
THe Common Bear Berry. A. wa ursi. Sprengel. 
Figured in Bigelow’s Medical Botany, I, Plate 6. 
A shrubby, evergreen plant, trailing upon the ground or on 
rocks, and forming large, close mats, on dry, sandy plains or 
rocky hills. Stem woody, with a grayish bark, which peels off 
in patches. Young shoots ascending, clothed with a brown- 
ish, downy bark. Leaves crowded towards the end of the 
branches, alternate, inversely egg-shaped, obtuse at the end, 
wedge-shaped at base, smooth on both surfaces, shining above, 
