ARB. 
after, was followed by his remarks on The Effe&s of Air 
on Human Bodies. A conftitutional aflhma had diflrelfed 
S him at different periods of his life, and proved fatal to him 
in 1734. In 1751, came out, in two vols. 8vo, printed at 
Glafgow, The Mifcellaneous Works of the late Dr. Ar- 
buthnot; which are laid to comprehend, with what is in- 
ferted in Swift’s Mifcellanies, all the pieces of wit and 
humour of this admirable author. 
ARBU'TL T S,y'. [Latin; derivation uncertain.] In bo¬ 
tany, a genus of the decandria monogynia clafs, in the na¬ 
tural order of bicornes. The generic characters are—• 
Calyx : perianthium five-parted, obtufe, very fmall, per¬ 
manent. Corolla : monopetalous, ovate, riattifh at the 
bafe, diaphanous, with a quinquefid mouth ; divifions ob¬ 
tufe, revolute, fmall. Stamina: filaments ten, fubulate- 
fwelling, very (lender at the bafe, affixed to the edge of 
the bale of the corolla, and half the length of it; antherae 
(lightly bifid, nodding. Piftillum: germ fubglobular, on 
a receptacle marked with ten dots ; (lyle cylindric, the 
length of the corolla; ftigma thickifh, obtufe. Pericar- 
pium: befry roundiffi, five-celled. Seeds: fmall, bony.— 
EJJential CharaElcr. Calyx five-parted ; corolla ovate, dia¬ 
phanous at the bafe ; capfule five-celled. 
Species. 1. Arbutus unedo, or common ftrawberry-tree: 
of this there are the following varieties; i. Arbutus alba, 
or common white-flowered If raw berry -1 ree : flower Am¬ 
ple, corollas whitifh. ii. Arbutus rubra, or red-flowered 
ftrawberry-tree: flower Ample, corollas reddifli. iii. Ar¬ 
butus plena, or double-flowered (frawberry-tree : flower 
full; (fern arboreous, leaves oblong-lanceolate, panicles 
fmooth, nodding. The common arbutus, or (frawberry- 
tree, rifes to the height of twenty or thirty feet, but rarely 
with an upright (lent. It ufually puts out branches very 
near the ground. The leaves keep on all the winter, and 
are thruft off in the fpring by new ones, fo that it is al¬ 
ways clothed with leaves. The berries have many feeds 
in them, and are roughened with the tubercles of the 
feeds. The arbutus is now to be found in mod of our 
plantations, and is one of their greateff ornaments in the 
months of OCtober and November, that being the feafon 
when it is in flower, and the fruit of the former year is 
ripe, for that is a whole year in growing to perfection. 
When there is plenty both of fruit and flowers upon the 
trees, they make an elegant appearance, at a feafon when 
mod others are pad their beauty. Thofe trees wffiich have 
large oval fruit, make the greated figure; the flowers of 
this being larger, and oblong. The variety with double 
flowers is a curiolity, but the flowers, having only two 
rows of petals, make no great appearance, nor do the trees 
produce fruit in any quantity; the other therefore is pre¬ 
ferable. That with red flowers makes a pretty variety 
when intermixed with the other ; for the outfide of them 
is of a fine red colour at their fird appearance, and after¬ 
wards they change to purple before they fall off. The 
fruit of this is the fame with the common one. Befides 
thefe principal varieties, the nurferymen have the curled- 
leaved or cut-leaved, and the fmooth-leaved ; they alfo 
didingiiifli the broad from the narrow-leaved. The arbu¬ 
tus is a native of the fouth of Europe, Greece, Paleftine, 
and ma»y other parts of Afia. It is alfo found in the weft 
of Ireland, in the county of Kerry, near the lake of Kil- 
larney, on barren limeftone rocks. The country people 
eat the fruit there, in Spain, Italy, See. Mr. Ray mentions, 
that he faw it in the market at Padua. It is faid to have 
conftituted part of the food of mankind in the early ages. 
a. Arbutus laurifolia, or laurel-leaved ftrawberry-tree: 
ftem arborefeent; leaves oblong, acuminate to both ends, 
(harply ferrate, fmooth ; racemes axillary, one-ranked, 
feffile, folitary. This is very like the common arbutus, 
but differs in its (harp cufpidate ferratures, and its axil¬ 
lary very fimple racemes, (horter than the leaves, with 
the flowers all directed the fame way. It is a native of 
North America. 
3. Arbutus andrachne, or oriental ftrawberry-tree: ftem 
arboreous; leaves oval, quite entire and ferrate; panicles 
Vox. IJ. No, 56. 
A R B fe 
pubeTcent, ereCt. This alfo much refembles tiie coinmom 
arbutus, but the bark is not rough ; fome of the leaves- 
have no ferratures; the panicle is upright and vifeid, which 
in that is fmooth. It grows to a middle-fized tree, with 
irregular branches. 1 he leaves are fmooth, large, fome- 
what like thofe of the bay-tree, but not quite fo long. 
Flowers like thofe of the common arbutus, but growing 
thinly on the branches. Fruit oval, of the fame colour 
and confidence with the common fort; but the feeds of 
this are flat, whereas in that they are pointed and angular. 
It grows naturally in the eaft, particularly about Magnefia, 
where it is fo plentiful, as fo be the principal fuel tiled 
by the inhabitants. Belon fays, it is common in Crete, 
and between Aleppo and Antioch. Wheeler obferved it 
near Athens, and (aw the fruit in the market at Smyrna- 
Tournefort enumerates three other varieties of this tree,, 
which he obferved in the Levant; one with ferrate leaves, 
a fecond with a large oblong fruit, and a third with large 
compreifed fruit. Flowers in March and April. 
4. Arbutus ferruginea, or long-flowered ftrawberry-tree: 
ftem arborefeent, leaves oblong, obtufe, fmooth, quite en¬ 
tire; racemes terminal.' Found in America, by Muti's. 
5. Arbutus mucronata, or pointed-leaved ftrawberry- 
tree : ftem fhrubby ; leaves alternate, ovate, ferrate, point¬ 
ed ; peduncles axillary, one-flowered. 6. Arbutus pu- 
milu, or dwarf ftrawberry-tree: (terns diffufed; leaves, 
alternate, diftich, oblong, quite enttre ; flowers lateral, 
folitary. Both of thefe were found in Terra del F'uego; 
by Back. 
7. Arbutus Acadienfis, or Acadian ftrawberry-tree: 
ftems procumbent; leaves ovate, fubferrate ; flowers fcat- 
tered ; berries many-feeded. This is a low bulhy (hrub* 
with (lender trailing branches : it never produces fruit m« 
England. It grows naturally in Acadia, and other north¬ 
ern parts of America, upon fwampy land, which is fre¬ 
quently overflowed with water. 
8. Arbutus Alpina, or Alpine arbutus : ftetns procum¬ 
bent ; leaves rugofe, ferrate. The branches of this ftirub 
trail flat upon the ground, two or three feet round the root; 
the berries are globular, green at firft, then red, but black 
when ripe, and of the fize of a floe, having five cells, con¬ 
taining five fmall bony feeds, their tafte refembling that 
of black currants, but more maukifh, infomuch that Lin¬ 
naeus fays the Laplanders will fcarcely eat them. Haller, 
on the contrary, thinks the flavour not unpieafant; and 
Mr. Miller deferibes them as of a pleafant tafte, fo as fre¬ 
quently to be eaten by the inhabitants of thole countries- 
where they grow naturally. Nothing is more common, 
fays Linnaeus, in all the Lapland Alps, in Dalekarlia, front 
their tops to their bale, round the White Sea, efpecially in 
very dry fandy places : alfo in Denmark, Switzerland, Daiu 
phine. Savoy, Siberia, &c. and with us, in-many of the 
highland mountains of Scotland, iu a dry barren foil. It- 
flowers in May. 
9. Arbutus uva urfi, or trailing arbutus or bear-berr y 
ftem procumbent, leaves quite entire. This' ihrub is very 
abundant in many parts of the continent, as in. Sweden,. 
Denmark, and moft parts-of the north ; alfo in Switzer¬ 
land, Germany, Carniola, Danphine; Savoy, Siberia, &c. 
With us it is of late difeovery, and feems firft to have been, 
noticed by Mr. Lhwyd, in the ifiand of Mull; it is how¬ 
ever now known to be very common upon dry, heathy, 
mountainous, and rocky, places, throughout the highlands 
arid weftern ifles; alfo near Hexham, in Northumberland. 
The leaves have been greatly celebrated in calculous and 
nephritic complaints, and other diforders of the urinary 
paffages. The dofe is half a drachm of the powdef of the 
leaves, every morning, or two or three times a day. De 
Haen relates, after great experience of this medicine in the 
hofpital of Vienna, that fuppurations, though obftinate,. 
and of long continuance, in the kidneys, ureters, bladder, 
urethra, ferotum, and perinteum, where there has been 
no venereal taint or evident marks of a calculus, were in 
general completely cured by it: that, of thofe who had a 
manifeft calculus, feveral found permanent relief, fo that,- 
Mi long 
