Flora Medica

ERICACEAE.ARCTOSTAPHYLOS.Sepals 5, scale-like, green, spreading. Corolla ventricose,5-toothed. Stamens 10, inserted round a plaited hypogynousdisk ; anthers opening by pores, with 2 awns at the apex. Fruitsucculent, smooth, drupaceous ; putamen many-celled; cells] -seeded.785. A. Uva ursi ii.Spreng. syst. 287. Arbutus Uva UrsiLinn.fl. lapp. 162. t. 6. f. 3. Woodv. i. t. 70. Eng. Sot. t. 714.JBigel. med. bot. i. t. 6. Barren gravelly hills and dry sandywoods in the north of Europe and America. (Bearberry.)Stem woody, trailing, and rooting, the young shoots only turningupwards. Bark deciduous, and peeling off from the old stems. Leavesalternate, obovate, acute at base, attached by short petioles, coriaceous,evergreen, glabrous, shining above, paler beneath, entire, and in theyoung ones pubescent, the margin rounded, but scarcely reflexed.Flowers terminal, clustered. Pedicels reflexed, furnished at base with ashort acute bract, and 2 minute ones at the sides. Sepals 5, roundishreddish and persistent. Corolla ovate or urceolate, white with a reddishtinge, transparent at base, contracted at the mouth, hairy inside, with 5short reflexed segments. Stamens very slightly adhering to the base ofthe corolla ; filaments hairy ;anthers each with 2 horns and 2 pores.Ovary round ; style straight, longer than the stamens : stigma simple.Disk a black indented ring. Fruit succulent, globular, depressed, deepred, approaching scarlet, with an insipid mealy pulp, and about 5 seeds,which cohere strongly together, so as to appear like the nucleus of adrnpe. Leaves astringent and rather bitter. Used in nephriticandcalculous cases ;of very doubtful action in the latter, but believed to bea decided palliativein nephritic paroxyms. Also employed in dysuria,catarrhus vesicae, leucorhoea and gonorrhoea. Exhibited in the formof decoction and powder of the leaves. Its action is slow, and ittherefore requires to be given for a considerable period ; although theeffects are uncertain they sometimes give astonishing relief. Pereira.LOISELEURIA.Calyx 5-parted. Corolla short, campanulate, 5-cleft. Stamens5, equal, inclosed ;cells of anthers bursting longitudinally.Style inclosed. Capsules 5-celled, 5-valved, with bifid pointedvalves and a loculicidal dehiscence.786. L. procumbens Desv. journ. bot. iii. 35. R. and S.iv. 353. Azalea procumbens Linn.fl. lapp. xc. t. 6. f. 2. Eng.Bot. t. 865. Torrey.fl. i. 233. Chamceledon procumbens Link.enum. i. 210. Mountains of Europe from Lapland to the Mediterranean,and on the White Hills, Catskill, and other mountainousranges in North America.A small evergreen shrub, resembling Thyme. Stems caespitose, 3-4inches long, branched, procumbent, rigid. Leaves opposite, elliptical,382