ERICACEAE 
377 
so, and leathery, frequently hairy. The upper epidermis is stoutly 
cuticularised, and there is very often water storage tissue between it 
and the green tissue. In the Ericoideae there are no true winter-buds 
or scale-leaves; the plants are evergreen, and the whorled leaves 
needle-like, often through being rolled back on themselves to form a 
groove or even a chamber on the under side (cf. Empetrum, and see 
p. 1 66). 
The infl. commonly terminates a strongly growing shoot, and a 
sympodial growth tends to be formed. The firs, may be solitary, but 
are more often in racemose groupings, each with a bract and two 
bracteoles, 5 , actinomorphic or slightly zygomorphic. K 4 — 5 ; C 
(4 — 5) or 4 — 5 ( Lcdeae ), usually bell-shaped; A 8 — 10, obdiploste- 
monous, hypogynous or rarely slightly epipetalous; anthers introrse, 
often with projecting appendages, the thecae often spreading at top, 
and opening by apical pores; pollen grains in tetrads. Below the 
gynoeceum is a fleshy disc secreting honey. G (4 — 5) superior or 
inferior, 4 — 5-locular, with axile placentae; ovules in each loc. 1 — 00 , 
anatropous; style simple with capitate stigma. Fruit a capsule, 
drupe or berry. Embryo cylindrical, in copious endosperm. 
The firs, of the Brit. sp. are mostly bee-firs, with a ‘loose-pollen’ 
mechanism. The hanging position and the size of the flower are 
suited to bees. The stigma projects so as to be first touched, and in 
probing for the honey at the base of the fir. the bee touches the sta. 
or their projecting. horns, and by thus shaking them causes a shower of 
pollen to fall upon itself from the tips of the anthers. Calluna is 
partly anemophilous ; Kalmia has a curious explosive mechanism (see 
C., K., and Erica, &c.). 
Bentham and Hooker separate Vaccinioideae from the E. and make 
of them an independent order, on account chiefly of the inferior 
ovary. They add to the E. as here defined, the Pyrola group of 
Pyrolaceae (q.v-). 
Classification and chief genera (after Drude). 
I. RHODODENDROIDEAE (septicidal capsule; seed with 
ribbed loose coat, often winged; corolla falling after flowering; 
sta. with upright or long adnate anthers, with no append- 
ages) : 
1. Ledeae (polypet.): Ledum. 
2. Rhododendreae (zygomorphic) : Rhododendron, Menziesia. 
3. Phyllodoceae (actinomorphic): Loiseleuria, Kalmia, Phyllo- 
doce, Daboecia. 
II. ARBUTOIDEAE (berry or loculicidal capsule; seed tri- 
angular or ovate, not winged ; corolla falling; anthers much folded, 
with peg-like appendages, or prolonged into tubes, shedding 
the pollen upwards ; ovary superior) : 
4. Andromedeae (dry capsule with small calyx at base) : Cas- 
siope, Andromeda, Epigaea. 
