Home › P › Pieris (Name applied to the Muses)

Pieris (Name applied to the Muses)

(a name applied to the Muses, from their supposed abode at Pieria, in Thessaly). ORD. Ericaceae. A genus comprising about ten species of glabrous or pubescent, mostly hardy trees or shrubs, natives of the Himalayas, the Malayan Peninsula, Japan, and North west America. Flowers white, rarely red, disposed in axillary or terminal, short or elongatd racemes, shortly pedicellate, bracteate, and one or two bracteolate; calyx free, with five ovate, acute segments, persistent; corolla ovoid or cylindrical-urceolate, five-toothed, the lobes recurved; stamens ten, included. Leaves alternate, petiolate, persistent, entire or serrulate. The species best known to cultivation are described below. They require culture similar to that recommended for Andromeda (which see).

P. floribunda (bundle-flowered).* fl. pure white, produced in great abundance; racemes secund, axillary and terminal, forming panicles. April and May. l. ovate, oblong, acute, finely serrulated, adpressedly ciliated, glabrous, coriaceous, h. 2ft. to 6ft. United States, 1812. Shrub. SYNS. Andromeda floribunda (B. M. 1566 and B. R. 807) and Leucothoe floribunda. P. formosa (beautiful).* fl. porcelain-white, disposed in terminal, branching clusters. l. coriaceous, green, somewhat bullate, lanceolate or oblanceolate, very finely serrated. 1881. A very beautiful evergreen shrub, hardy in the southernmost parts of England. (G. C. n. s., xv. 569.) P. japonica (Japanese).* fl. white, urceolate, disposed in long, pendulous clusters. l. rather thick, dark green, lanceolate. Japan. Hardy shrub. (G. C. n. s., xvii. 797.) SYN. Andromeda japonica (B. H., 1871, 19; Gn., Nov., 1877). P. mariana (Maryland). fl. white, large, nodding, in clusters from axillary, scaly buds; sepals leaf-like. May and June. l. deciduous, but rather coriaceous, oval or oblong, veiny, said to poison lambs and calves. h. 2ft. to 4ft. North America, 1736. Shrub. (B. M. 1759, under name of Andromeda marina ovalis.) P. nitida (shining). fl. white, red, or purple, odorous; corolla cylindrical-ovate, gibbous at base; clusters axillary, very numerous, six to twelve-flowered. March to May. l. ovate or oblong, entire, shining. Branches three-angled. h. 2ft. to 6ft. South United States, 1765. Evergreen shrub. (B. M. 1095, under name of Andromeda coriacea.) P. ovalifolia (oval-leaved). fl. pale flesh-colour; corolla oblong, downy; pedicels unilateral, secund; racemes lateral, numerous, leafy, elongated, many-flowered. May. l. oval, acuminated, quite entire, 2in. to 4in. long, rounded at base, downy when young. Branches downy. h. 20ft. to 40ft. Nepaul, 1825. Halfhardy tree, poisonous to goats. densiflora is a dense-flowered variety, introduced from Assam in 1879.

P. phillyreaefolia (Phillyrea-leaved). fl. white; corolla ovoid; racemes solitary, axillary, loosely four to twelve-flowered. January to March. l. oblong or lanceolate-oblong, obtuse, glandular-serrate near the apex. Stem alternately leafy and bracted. h. 1ft. to 2ft. West Florida, 1842. Greenhouse or half-hardy shrub. (B. R. xxx. 36, under name of Andromeda phillyreaefolia.)