"
Much taller than the preceding dwarfs is the COMMON PRIVET
ANDROMEDA found in swamps and low ground from New England to the
Gulf and in the southwest (Xolisma ligustrina). Whoever has seen
the privet almost universally grown in hedges is familiar with
the general aspect of this much-branched shrub. Most farmers'
boys know the Andromeda's mock May-apple, a hollow, stringy
growth of insect origin, which they are not likely to confuse
with the pulpy, juicy apple found on the closely related azaleas
(q.v.). Abundant terminal spike-like or branched clusters of
white, globular, four or five parted flowers in close array,
attract quantities of bees from the end of May to early July,
notwithstanding each individual flower measures barely an eighth
of an inch across. We have seen the fine hair-triggers which
other members of this same family, the beautiful pink laurels
(q.v.), have set to be sprung by an incoming visitor. Now this
Andromeda, and similarly several of its immediate kin, have a
quite different, but equally effective, method of throwing pollen
on its friends who come to call.
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