356 
NATURAL ORDER ERICE/E. 
They grow in great, abundance at the Cape of Good Hope, covering 
immense tracts of land ; they are common in North and South 
America, and in Europe, while in Northern Asia and India they are 
not, so common, and in Australasia they are almost unknown, though 
they have their place supplied by Epaerideae. As to their proper¬ 
ties, some are found to be astringent, as Azalea procumbens, Rho¬ 
dodendron ferrugineum, and Ledum palustre. Others are diuretic, 
as Arctostaphvlos, Uva Ursi, or Bearsgrape, the powdered leaves of 
which, taken in the dose of from a scruple to a dram, two or three 
times a day, have been found an excellent medicine for Calculus. 
The berries of the succulent-fruited kinds are usually grateful, and 
sometimes taken as food, such as the Gaultheria Shallori, and pro¬ 
cumbens, Rrossaea coccinea, and Arctostaphylos alpina. In the 
Island of Corsica, an agreeable wine is said to be made from the 
berries of Arbutus Unedo. 
Gaultheria procumbens possesses stimulating and Anodyne pro¬ 
perties. In North America, an infusion of it is used as tea, and an 
infusion of the berries in brandy is taken in small quanfities, in the 
same manner as common bitters. Extract, of Chimaphila umbellata. 
in the form of pills, in doses of five scruples a day, has been found 
successful in cases of dropsy. The fruit of Arbutus Unedo, taken 
in too great a quantity, is said to be Narcotic, and there is no doubt 
but a similar quality exists in several other plants of this order. 
Rhododendron ponticum and maximum, Kalmia latifolia, and some 
others, are well known to be venomous. The honey which poisoned 
some of the soldiers, ill the retreat of the ten thousand through Pon- 
tus, as related by Xenophon in his Memorabilia, was gathered bv 
bees from the flowers of Azalea pontica. The shoots of Andromeda 
ovalitolia poison goats in Nipal. Dr. Horsfield, however, says that 
a very volatile heating oil, with a peculiar odour, used by the Ja¬ 
vanese in rheumatic affections, is obtained from a species of Andro¬ 
meda. Dr. Barton states, in the American Philosophical Transac¬ 
tions, that in the autumn of 1790, the honey collected near Philadel¬ 
phia, from the Kalmia latifolia, proved fatal to many. Yet the ho¬ 
ney collected from our common heath appears to possess no such 
pernicious qualities. An infusion of Rhododendron is said to be 
used in America in cases of chronic rheumatism, but it appears to 
be a dangerous remedy for those who are unskilled in the use of it. 
This Order contains twenty-eight genera, and upwards of a thou • 
sand species, the greater part of which are greenhouse plants, al¬ 
though nearly three hundred are hardy, growing in their native 
woods, from six inches high to upwards of eighty feet. Thev are all 
