ERICACEiE. 



367 



77. ERICACE/E. Heath Family. 



Trees, shrubs, or perennial herbs. Leaves simple, alternate in all 

 our genera except Chimaphila. mostly evergreen and stiff and 

 coriaceous. Flowers regular and symmetrical, with the parts in 5's 

 or 4's. Stamens free from the corolla, as many or commonly twice 

 as many as its lobes or petals and always distinct from them; anthers 

 2-celled, in ours opening by a terminal pore or chink and frequently 

 bearing two horn-like or awn-like appendages. Ovary superior or 

 inferior, 4 to 10 (rarely 2 or 3)-celled, with usually axile placenta? 

 bearing numerous ovules. Corolla in most cases sympetalous, but 

 choripetalous in Chimaphilla and Pyrola. Rhodendron has a slightly 

 irregular corolla. The red or white flowers are pendulous as a rule 

 and the pollen-grains are often united in 4's (tetrads). 



The suborder Monotropea? has no representatives within our limits, 

 but several in the state. All have hypogynous flowers and are 

 parasites or saprophytes with red, brown, or dull white herbage: 



Allotropa virgata T. & G. Reddish or whitish rather fleshy 

 plant; corolla none; ovary 5-celled, as in the next two. — Northern 

 California. 



Pterospora andromeda Nutt. Pine Drops. Reddish brown 

 plant; flowers racemose; corolla sympetalous; anthers 2-awned at 

 the back. — Sierra Nevada; Lake Co. and northward. 



Sarcodes sanguinea Torr. Snow Plant. Bright red or scarlet 

 plant; flowers in a fleshy scaly spike; corolla sympetalous; anthers 

 not awned. — Sierra Nevada. 



Pleuricospora fimbriolata Gray. Brownish or whitish plant; 

 corolla of 4 or 5 petals; ovary 1-celled. — Southern Sierra Nevada; 

 near Healdsburg acc. to Brandegee. 



Hemitomes congestum Gray. Spike capitate, often subterranean; 

 sepals 2; corolla tubular-urn-shaped, 4 or 5-lobed; ovary 1-celled, 

 apparently several-celled by the meeting of adjacent placental plates. 

 — Coast Ranges, near the coast. 



Corolla choripetalous; fruit a capsule. 

 Suff rutescent plants. 

 Flowers 1 to several, corymbose on a leafy stem. ... 1. Chimaphila. 



Flowers racemose on a naked or sparingly scaly-bracted scape 



2. Pyrola. 



Low shrub; flowers numerous in umbel-like corymbs; leaves resinous- 

 dotted below * . . 3. Ledum. 



Corolla sympetalous; trees or shrubs except no. 7. 

 Calyx-tube free from the ovary. 



Corolla funnelform; fruit a capsule 4. Rhododendron. 



Corolla urn-shaped. 

 Fruit drupaceous, with stone-like nutlets, and smooth or resinous 



surface 5. Arctostaphylos. 



Fruit a berry, surface granular 6. Arbutus. 



Fruit enclosed in the enlarged and baccate calyx. . 7. Gaultheria. 

 Calyx-tube adherent to the ovary; fruit a berry . . . . 8. Vaccinium. 



1. CHIMAPHILA Pursh. Pipsissewa. 

 Low perennial evergreen suffrutescent plants. Leaves scattered or 

 in irregular whorls, serrulate. Flowers white, waxy, in a terminal 



