ERTCACEJE. 20 
A small tree with rough bark. Shoots of the year hairy, with 
long gland-tipped hairs. Loaves evergreen, elliptical-oblanceolate 
or -obovatc, very shortly stalked, acute, sharply and doubly serrate, 
glabrous, with a few gland-tipped hairs on the edge and on the 
petioles, green on both sides, paler beneath, with the veins incon- 
spicuous both above and beneath. Mowers numerous, in terminal 
drooping lax panicles. Peduncles and pedicels glabrous. Calyx- 
lobes ciliated. Corolla ovatc-urccolate, with 5 rcflcxcd semicircular 
ciliated teeth. Anthers with the appendages about as long as the 
filaments. Berry papillose-muricated, scarlet-red. 
About the lakes of Killarney ; in woods at Muckross, and at 
Glen Gariff, near Bantry. Professor Babington considers it truly 
wild at Killarney. I have seen it on the islands in Lough Gill, 
co. Sligo, but there it had no doubt been planted. 
Ireland. Shrub or tree. Autumn and Winter. 
A small tree, rarely over 6 or 8 feet high, with spreading branches. 
Leaves 1^ to 3 inches long, slightly shining, the midrib generally 
tinged with red, especially at the base. Corolla cream-colour, f to 
J inch long. Berry a little larger than a cherry, dim crimson- 
scarlet, with the surface roughened with long pointed tubercles. 
The fruit is not mature until the autumn succeeding that in which 
the flower was produced. 
Strawberry-tree. 
French, Arbousier Fraisier. German, Biireniraube. 
This tree is well known as an ornament of the shrubbery, and is an attractive 
object at every season of the year. In the autumn it is seen covered with its white 
bellshaped flowers, slightly tinged with pink, intermixed with its strawberry-like fruit, 
which, owing to the length of time it takes to ripen, remains on the trees for twelve 
months. The Arbutus was known to the Greeks and Romans, but, according; to 
PliDy, was not held in much esteem ; for, as the specific name implies, the fruit was 
considered so unpleasant, that only one could be eaten at a time. There caii be no 
doubt, however, that at one time the fruit was an article of diet with the ancients 
and at the present time the Irish peasantry around Killarney, where it grows exten- 
sively, collect and eat the berries. Virgil recommends the young shoots as winter 
food for goats, and as fit for basket-work. Horace praises the tree for its shade, and 
Ovid celebrates its loads of " blushing fruit." Gerarde speaks of it in his time as 
growing in "some lew gardens," and says, " the fruit being ripe is of a gallant red colour 
in taste somewhat harsh, and in a manner without any rellish, of which thrushes and 
blackbirds do leed in winter." Many writers have celebrated its beauty in verse. 
Mrs. Barbauld writes of 
" The arbutus rearing his scarlet fruit, 
Luxuriant mantling o'er the craggy steeps." 
