Family

Heath.

Colour

White.

Odour

Scentless.

Range

Throughout the middle states.

Time Of Bloom

Early spring.

Flowers: small; growing in one-sided, open leafy racemes. Calyx: of five sepals, having a pair of bracts at the base. Corolla: cylinder-shaped, with a five-lobed border. Stamens: ten. Pistil: one. Leaves: oblong; in texture like leather; glossy above and dull beneath. An evergreen, branching shrub; two to four feet high.

The English name of these plants is suggestive of the texture of the leaves, which is like leather. We find them in swamps and bogs as well as in the moist soil of low meadows.