Menziesia
(named after Archibald Menzies, 1754-1842, surgeon and naturalist to the expedition under Vancouver). ORD. Ericaceae. A genus comprising seven species of hardy, Heath-like shrubs, natives of North America and Japan. Flowers white, greenish, or purple, in terminal corymbose fascicles, nodding or drooping; corolla cylindric-globose, urceolate or campanulate, obtusely four or five-lobed. Leaves alternate, petiolate, obovate or elliptical, membranaceous, deciduous, entire, glabrous or pilose beneath. Branches sub-verticillate. The species are very ornamental subjects for rock gardens or borders, in a moist peaty soil. Propagated by carefully dividing established tufts, by cuttings, or by layers.
M. caerulea. See Phyllodoce taxifolia.
M. empetrifolia (Empetrum-leaved). A synonym of Bryanthus empetriformis. M. ferruginea (rusty). fl. brown; corolla oblong-ovate, and becoming cylindrical; pedicels bristly-glandular. May. l. oblong or lanceolate-obovate, acutish at both ends, glandular-mucronate, rusty strigose-hirsute above, paler beneath. h. 6in. North America, 1811.
M. f. globularis (globular-flowered). fl. pink, drooping; corolla globose, with rounded lobes. May. l. ovate, clustered at the ends of the branches. h. 2ft. to 5ft. North America, 1806. (B. M. 1571, under name of M. ferruginea Betta.) M. polifolia (Polium-leaved). A synonym of Daboecia polifolia.