382 WOODY PLANTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 
paler and reticulate beneath, with a fringe of soft hairs on the 
margin, on a short, downy footstalk. Flowers drooping, in a 
terminal cluster. Flower-stem short, with a lance-shaped, per- 
sistent bract at base, and two short concave ones just above. 
Calyx of three to five, reddish, rounded segments, which re- 
main and invest the base of the ripe fruit. Corolla pitcher- 
shaped, flesh-colored, pellucid at the base, hairy inside, with a 
contracted mouth of five short, reflexed segments. Anthers 
short, dark purple, opening with terminal pores, and tipped 
with two long, crimson, reflexed bristles; filaments thick at 
bottom, tapering, hairy. Stigma short, cylindrical. Ovary 
sreen, orbicular, resting on a flattened, purple torus. 
Berries globular, of a deep red, filled with a tasteless, mealy 
pulp, and a drupe made up of five wedge-shaped nuts. They 
remain on through the year, and serve as food for partridges 
and grouse. 
This plant abounds in the Alps and Pyrenees, and in all the 
northern and mountamous parts of Europe, as well as in this 
country. Every part of the plantis very astringent. In Swe- 
den and Russia it is employed in great quantities in tanning, in 
the preparation of morocco, and sometimes for dying wool an 
ash color. In Iceland, according to Sir William Hooker, it is 
used to impart a deep brown, and a black color. ‘A deep brown 
dye is produced by boiling the cloth in water, with a quantity of 
the leaves of sortilyng or A’rbutus uva ursi,”’ (for six hours, 
in an iron pot.) To make it afterwards black, it is boiled with a 
paste of earth called soria.* In medicine, it has been found effi- 
cacious in diseases affecting the urinary passages and in those 
of the kidneys. 
THE RHODORA TRIBE. RHODOREZ. (Resembling Rhodora.) Don. 
This section contains many of the most showy and oma- 
mental evergreen or deciduous plants known, and several of the 
most beautiful are natives to our climate. They are distin- 
guished by having flat leaves with the mid-rib callous, and 
flower-buds with imbricated scales resembling the cones of 
pines. 
* See Journal of a Tour in Iceland, p. 215 of the 2d ed. 
