Order XLII. ERICACEÆ.
Shrubs or small trees, sometimes low and creeping. Leaves usually alternate, sometimes opposite or whorled, rigid, simple, entire or serrate; stipules wanting. Flowers regular, hermaphrodite. Calyx inferior, 4–5-toothed or -cleft. Corolla gamopetalous, hypogynous, regular, often campanulate or urceolate, 4–5-toothed or -lobed (in some exotic genera divided into 4–5 free petals). Stamens usually double the number of the corolla-lobes, rarely the same number, hypogynous or sometimes adnate to the base of the corolla; filaments free; anthers 2-celled, opening by terminal pores or slits, often furnished with appendages. Ovary superior, 4–5-celled; style simple, terminal; stigma capitate, entire or shortly lobed; ovules usually many, attached to tlae inner angle of the cell or pendulous from the top of the angle. Fruit a capsule or berry, sometimes enclosed in the enlarged and succulent calyx (Gaultheria). Seeds usually numerous, small; albumen fleshy; embryo straight, axile.
A large order, widely spread over the whole world, especially in temperate and cool regions, but singularly rare in Australia and New Zealand, where its place is taken by the allied family Epacrideæ. In the tropics it is principally found on high mountains. Genera between 50 and 60; species not far from 1200. The properties of the order are unimportant, but it contains some of the most beautiful shrubs cultivated in gardens, as the various kinds of Rhododendron, Azalea, Erica, Arbutus, &c. Of the two genera found in New Zealand, Gaultheria has a wide range in Asia and America, and is also found in Australia; Pernettya is principally South American, but occurs in Tasmania as well.
| Fruit dry, capsular, usually enclosed in the enlarged and succulent calyx | 1. Gaultheria. |
| Fruit a berry, calyx persistent at its base, but not fleshy nor enlarged | 2. Pernettya. |
1. GAULTHERIA, Kahn.
Erect or procumbent shrubs, often hispid or strigose. Leaves persistent, alternate, usually serrate or serrulate, coriaceous. Flowers small, racemose or axillary and solitary. Calyx 5-lobed or -partite, in fruit usually enlarged and more or less succulent and coloured. Corolla urceolate or campanuiate, o-lobed; lobes imbricate, spreading or recurved. Stamens 10, included within the corolla-tube; filaments more or less dilated; anthers 2-celled. each cell opening by a terminal or oblique pore and tipped with 2 erect awns. Ovary 5-celled, with several ovules in each cell; style cylindric; stigma simple. Capsule 5-celled, loculicidally 5-valved, included in the usually enlarged and succulent calyx. Seeds numerous, minute, subglobose or obtusely angled.
