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Gaultheria (Named in honour of Gaulthier)

(named in honour of Gaulthier, a physician and botanist of Canada). Aromatic Wintergreen. SYN. Gualtheria. ORD. Ericaceae. A genus comprising about ninety species of very ornamental hardy or greenhouse small trees or shrubs, inhabitants of the American continent. A few are found in Asia, five or six occur in Tasmania and New Zealand, and one is Japanese. Flowers white, pink, or red, axillary and terminal, racemose, rarely solitary; corolla urceolate or campanulate,' five-lobed; lobes spreading or recurved, imbricated. Leaves coriaceous, persistent, alternate, rarely opposite, often serrate or serrulate, penninerved. The hardy species thrive in a peat soil, and are readily increased by division or by layers. The greenhouse kinds should be treated like other greenhouse shrubs. The species enumerated below are those best known to cultivation. G. procumbens does well in the ordinary peat border; and G. Shallon is well adapted for growing on rockwork, or as edgings.

G. antipoda (antipodal).* fl. white or pink, small, axillary and solitary, or crowded towards the ends of the branchlets. l. very coriaceous, veined, shortly petioled, orbicular, oblong-lanceolate or linear-lanceolate, acute, obtuse, or acuminate. h. 6ft. New Zealand, 1820. Greenhouse. G. ferruginea (rusty-coloured).* fl. pink; racemes bracteate, erect, rising from the axils at the tops of the branches, the whole forming a panicle. June. l. ovate, acute, shining above, with serrulately scabrous margins, clothed with rusty tomentum beneath, as well as the racemes and flowers. A dwarf shrub, or small tree. Brazil, 1852. Greenhouse. (B. M. 4697.) G. fragrantissima (very fragrant).* fl. secund, drooping, shortly pedicelled; racemes axillary, strict, erect, or inclined, shorter than the leaves, many-flowered, pubescent; corolla white or pale pink, mouth small; lobes rounded. April. l. very variable in shape, elliptic, ovate, obovate, or lanceolate, acute or acuminate. Branches stout, obtusely angled, shining. Himalayas, 1869. A handsome greenhouse plant (quite hardy in some parts of Ireland). (B. M. 5984.) G. procumbens (procumbent).* Canada Tea; Creeping Wintergreen. fl. white, few, terminal, nutant, solitary. July. Berries red, edible. l. obovate, acute at the base, finely and ciliately toothed. Stems procumbent; branches erect, naked at bottom, but with crowded leaves at top. North America, 1762. Hardy.(B. M. 1966.) G. scabra (scabrous). fl., racemes axillary, simple; calyx and bracts clothed with glandular hairs. Summer. l. ovate-cordate, acute, toothed, scabrous, reticulately veined beneath. Caraccas. Greenhouse.

G. Shallon (Salal).* fl., corolla white, tinged with red, downy, urceolate, with a closed limb; racemes secund, bracteate, downy. May. Berries purple, globose, acute, fleshy. l. ovate, subcordate, serrate, glabrous on both surfaces. North-west America, 1826. Plant procumbent, hairy. The berries of this hardy species have a very agreeable flavour, and make excellent tarts. (B. M. 2843; B. R. 1411.)