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A N D R OME D A polifolia.
M a rjh Androm eda.
D E C A N D R IA Monogynia.
Gen. Char. Cal. 5-cleft. Cor. ovate; its orifice
5-cleft. Capf. fuperior, 5-celled ; the partitions
from the middle of the valves. Antherce with
1 pores.
S p e c . C h a r . Flowers cluftered, terminal. Leaves
alternate, lanceolate, revolute, glaucous beneath.
S y n . Andromeda polifolia. Linn. Sp. PI. 564. FI.
Lapp. ed. 2 . 131. t. 1. ƒ . 2. Sm. F I. B rit. 441,
Hudf. 176, With. 398. Hull. 91, Dick/. H.
Sicc. fa fc. 6. 4.
Ledum paluftre noftras, Arbuti flore. R a il Spn. 472.
V - ' ’ ARIOUS of our friends. fituated in the north have
obligingly communicated to us wild fpecimens of this elegant
little fhrub, which grows on moft peat bogs in the mountainous
parts of England and Ireland, and lowlands of Scotland,
intermingled with Erica, Vaccinia, &c. flowering in
June.
It is fmooth in every part, branched, rigid and ever-green.
Leaves alternate, upright, on fliort ftalks, lanceolate, pointed,
entire, revolute; of a blueifh green above; very glaucous
beneath. Small fliort veins are moft confpicuous about the
mid-rib. The flowers grow on little red cluftered terminal
ftalks, drooping at firft, but becoming ere£t as they fade. Their
colour is a delicate rofe-colour, both in the calyx and corolla.
Stamina 10. Antherae brown, each with 2 horns. Capfules
brown, erect, with many fmall feeds.
Linnaeus in his elegant and inftruftive Flora Lapponica
has, with his ufual fancy, explained his reafons for naming
this plant Andromeda. The paflage is too long to copy, and
it would require his tafte to do juftice to it in a tranflation, but
nothing can be more poetical than the original.