Flora Medica

MYRICACE^E.Nat. syst.ed. 2. p. 179.MYRICA.$. Catkins ovate-oblong, consisting of bracts loosely imbricatedin every direction. Calyx 1 or 2 subulate scales.Bracts ovate, bluntish, concave, each containing 4, rarely more,short, capillary, erect filaments. Anthers vertical, large, of 2divided lobes. $ Catkins as in the but more . compact.Sepals 2, ovate, acute, scale-like. Ovary ovate, flattish, superior.Stigmas 2, thread-shaped, spreading, longer than the sepals.Fruit baccate, 1 -celled, various in substance. Seed 1, erect.628. M. Gale Linn. ^p. pi 1453. Eng, Sot. t. 562. SmithEng. Fl. iv. 239. Bogs and marshes. (Sweet Gale.)Stem upright, bushy, 3 or 4 feet high, with numerous alternatebranches. Leaves alternate, on short stalks, obovate-lanceolate, acute,serrated in their upper parts, 1^ inch long, deciduous ; green and smoothon both sides ;the under side palest. Catkins numerous, sessile, formedduring summer in the bosoms of the leaves, and remaining through thewinter. In the following March they are full-grown, expanding inMay. Scales of a red shining brown ;the lower ones of the femalecatkins hairy towards the tip. Smith. Fruit extremely fragrant, consistingof an achenium placed between 2 succulent, ovate fleshy sepals,which adhere to its sides, all covered with waxy aromatic granulations.Seed solitary, erect. The infusion has been used to cure the itch, andalso as a vermifuge. The leaves are used in Sweden as a substitute forhops in brewing.629. M. cerifera Linn. sp. pi. 1453. Willd. iv. 745. Bigelowmed. lot. iii. t. 43. Woods in the United States.(Waxmyrtle or Bayberry.)A branching half-evergreen bush from 1 to 12 feet high. Leavescuneate-lanceolate, sometimes entire, but more frequently toothed,particularly toward the end, somewhat pubescent, a little paler beneath,and generally twisted, or revolute in their mode of growth. The flowersappear in May before the leaves are fully expanded. The males growin catkins, which are sessile, erect, about half an inch or three quarterslong ; originating from the sides of the last year's twigs. Every floweris formed by a concave rhomboidal scale, containing 3 or 4 pairs ofroundish anthers on a branched footstalk. The females, which growon a different shrub, are less than half the size of the males, and consistof narrower scales, with each an ovate ovary, and two filiform styles.To these catkins succeed clusters or aggregations of small globularfruits resembling berries, which are at first green, but finally become305 x