There are only a few kinds of Phyllodoce, of arctic and alpine regions;
low shrubs, with small, leathery, evergreen leaves; flowers nodding,
with bracts, in terminal clusters; calyx usually with five divisions;
corolla more or less bell-shaped, usually five-lobed; stamens usually
ten; stigma with a round top, or four to six lobes; capsule roundish:
often called Heather, but we have no native Heather.
[Sidenote: =Red Heather=
_Phyllódoce Bréweri (Bryanthus)_
=Pink
Summer
Northwest=]
A charming little shrub, from six to ten inches tall, with gay flowers
and dark yellowish-green leaves, standing out stiffly from the stem,
like the bristles of a bottle-brush. The flowers are sweet-scented,
nearly half an inch across, with reddish calyxes and pedicels and
bright pink, saucer-shaped corollas, with from seven to ten, long,
purple stamens, a purple pistil and crimson buds. This makes heathery
patches on high mountain slopes, up to twelve thousand feet in the
Sierra Nevadas.
[Sidenote: =Red Heather=
_Phyllódoce empetrifórmis (Bryanthus)_
=Pink
Summer
Northwest=]
Much like the last, but the nodding flowers are smaller and not quite
so pretty, with bell-shaped corollas and the stamens not protruding. It
forms beautiful patches of bright purplish-pink color on mountainsides,
up to eleven thousand feet, farther north than the last.
[Sidenote: =Yellow Heather=
_Phyllódoce glanduliflòra (Bryanthus)_
=Yellowish
Summer
Northwest=]
This makes heather-like patches on rocks and has many rough, woody
stems, crowded with yellowish-green leaves, shorter and broader than
those of Red Heather. The drooping flowers are about three-eighths
of an inch long, with a hairy, greenish-yellow calyx and yellowish
corolla, something between cream and pale-lemon in color. At a
distance the effect of the flowers is much more yellow than close by,
but they are not so pretty as either the red or white heathers.
[Illustration: Red Heather--P. Breweri.