676 
DIOECIA DIANDRIA. 
\ 
CERATIOLA. Mich. 
Masculi. Calyx i tn - 
bricatus, squamis plu- 
rimis (6 — 8.) Corolla 
0. Stamina 2, exserta. 
Foeminei. Calyx 
imbricatus, squamis 
plurimis. Corolla 0. 
Stylus 1, brevis. Stig- 
ma inaequaliter multi- 
partitum. Bacca 2- 
sperma. 
1. Ericoides. Mich. 
Sterile Jlorets. Ca- 
lyx imbricate, scales 
numerous (6 — 8.) ( o- 
rolku. 0. .. Stamens 2, 
exserted. 
Fertile Jlorets. Ca- 
lyx imbricate, scales 
numerous. Corolla 0. 
Style 1, short. Stigma 
unequally many-part- 
ed. Berry 2-seeded. 
Mich. 2. p. 222. Sp. pi. 4. p. 712. Pursh, 1. p. 21. Nutt. 2. p. 232. 
An evergreen shrub. 4 — 8 feet high, branches virgate, somewhat verticil- 
late; when young tomentose. Leaves linea#j*g-labrous, rigid,, svjtluthe mar- 
gins revolute, 6 — 8 lines long, verticillate, 3 — 4 in each whorl. Flowers 
axillary, verticillate, sessile. Scales of the calyx tomentose on the margin, 
persistent. Berry small, yellowish, 2-seeded, somewhat persistent. Seed 
hard. 
This singular plant, which resembles the genus Erica so much in its ap- 
pearance and habit, though not in its seminal affinities, grows generally in 
the most dry and sandy soils. Near Murphy’s Bridge, on the Edisto River, 
it covers a space of 3 or 400 yards wide and two or three miles long, which 
appears to have been a sand bank formed by some of the antient freshets of 
that river, and on which only lichens and a few stunted oaks (Q. Catesbaei 
and Nigra) are found intermingled with it. Near Augusta, Mr. Nuttall. St. 
Mary’s, Pursh. On the sand-hills between Camden and Columbia. 
Flowers August and September? The berries are ripe in November. 
