Shrubs two to six feet high. _Leaves._--Alternate; short-petioled; oblong or oval; an inch or two long; coriaceous; sprinkled beneath with resin-dots. _Flowers._--White; in terminal and axillary clusters. _Calyx._--Five-cleft. _Petals._--Five; three lines long; rotately spreading. _Stamens._--Four to ten. Anthers opening terminally. _Ovary._--Five-celled. Style filiform, persistent. _Hab._--The Coast Ranges, from Mendocino County northward, and through the Sierras.
Our Labrador tea is a comely shrub, found in the mountains at an elevation of four thousand feet and upward. Its small, leathery leaves are miniature copies of those of the Californian rhododendron, differing from them, however, in the sprinkling of resin-dots upon the under surface.
Upon seeing the flowers of this shrub for the first time, one is apt to imagine it a member of the Rose family, something akin to the cherry, with its clusters of small white flowers of a bitter fragrance; but a glance at the anthers, with their terminal pores, tells the story quickly.
A tea made from the leaves is, with many people, a valued remedy for rheumatism.
This little shrub is much dreaded by sheepmen, who claim that it poisons their flocks. It has been suggested that it would be an excellent thing to have it widely planted as a means of reducing these bands of "hoofed locusts," as Mr. Muir terms them--these marauders who trample down so much beauty, and leave desolation everywhere in their wake.
_Chimaphila Menziesii_, Spreng. Heath Family.
_Stems._--Six inches high. _Leaves._--Six to eighteen lines long; dark green, sometimes variegated with white; leathery. _Flowers._--One to three. _Calyx._--Five-parted; white. _Petals._--Five; waxen-white or pinkish. _Stamens._--Ten. Filaments enlarged and hairy in the middle. Anthers two-celled; opening terminally. _Ovary._--Five-celled. Style short. Stigma button-like. _Hab._--The Middle Sierras and Mendocino County.
The prince's pine is a charming little plant, and may be found beneath the undergrowth in the great coniferous woods of the Sierras, where it sits demurely with bowed head, like some cloistered nun engaged with her own meditations. It has an exquisite perfume, like that of the lily of the valley.