Ericaceae
An extensive order, widely spread over the whole world (but very rare in Australia), containing eighty-seven genera and about 1300 species. The species are, for the most part, shrubs or sub-shrubs, but occasionally growing into small trees. Flowers regular, or nearly so, hermaphrodite; calyx superior or inferior, of four or five divisions; corolla four or five-cleft, or toothed; stamens four, five, eight, or ten, or twice those numbers, hypogynous or epigynous. Fruit a capsule or berry. Leaves mostly evergreen, whorled, alternate or opposite, exstipulate. Well-known genera are: Arbutus, Cassandra, Erica, Gaultheria, Pieris, Pyrola, and Rhododendron.