Lyonia
(named in honour of John Lyon, a collector of North American plants). ORD. Ericaceae. This genus, formerly included under Andromeda, comprises about eight species of hardy or greenhouse trees or shrubs. They are natives of North America, Mexico, Jamaica, and Cuba. Flowers small, in fascicles or racemes, sometimes paniculate, axillary; corolla urceolate or globose, pubescent, four or five-dentate; teeth recurved. Leaves alternate, petiolate, persistent or deciduous, entire or obscurely serrulate. Lyonias succeed best in peat or sandy loam. Propagation is effected by layers; or by seeds, which, being extremely small, require careful sowing in a sandy-peat soil. L. ferruginea (rusty-coloured). fl. white; pedicels aggregate, axillary. April and May. l. coriaceous, stiff, crowded, on short petioles, cuneate-lanceolate, acute, quite entire, convex, with revolute edges. h. 20ft. Carolina to Florida, 1774. Whole plant clothed with brown, umbilicate, furfuraceous scales. Low greenhouse shrub. SYN. Andromeda rigida (under which name it is figured in L. B. C. 430).
L. jamaicensis (Jamaica). fl. white; corolla oblong. July. l. bluntish, evergreen, glabrous, lanceolate or elliptical-lanceolate, quite entire or repand, reticulated with veins, and at length punctate beneath. Jamaica. Greenhouse shrub. (B. M. 4273.) L. ligustrina (Privet-like). fl. white, small, in pedunculate clusters; corolla nearly globose; floriferous branches terminal, panicled, nearly naked. June. l. obovate-lanceolate, sub-acuminated at both ends, almost entire. h. 3ft. to 10ft. North America, 1748. Hardy shrub. SYNS. L. paniculata (W. D. B. 37) and Andromeda paniculata.
L. paniculata (panicled). A synonym of L. ligustrina.