Sometimes before the
snow has melted in April, the leafy terminal shoots are hung with
multitudes of little waxy-white, cylindric, typical heath flowers
only about a quarter of an inch long, each nodding from a leaf
axil, and the whole forming one-sided racemes. But as the shrub
ranges from Newfoundland to Georgia, and westward to Illinois,
British Columbia, and Alaska, some people find it blooming even
in July.
Mythological names were evidently in high favor among the
botanists who labeled the genuses comprising the heath family:
Phyllodoce, the sea-nymph; Cassiope, mother of Andromeda;
Leucothoe; Andromeda herself; Pieris, a name sometimes applied to
the Muses from their supposed abode at Pieria, Thessaly; and
Cassandra, daughter of Priam, the prophetess who was shut up in a
mad-house because she prophesied the ruin of Troy - these names
are as familiar to the student of this group of shrubs today as
they were to the devout Greeks in the brave days of old.
CREEPING WINTERGREEN; CHECKERBERRY; PARTRIDGE-BERRY; MOUNTAIN
TEA; GROUND TEA; DEER, BOX, or SPICE BERRY
(Gaultheria procumbens) Heath family
Flowers - White, small, usually solitary, nodding from a leaf
axil.
Pages:
544
545
546
547
548
549
550
551
552
553
554
555
556
557
558
559
560
561
562
563
564
565
566
567
568