A much-branched shrub, 3 to 9 feet high with finely canescent twigs. Leaves obovate, blunt or pointed at the apex, narrowed or tapering at the base, sharply toothed, smooth or nearly so and green on both sides, 1 to 3 inches long, on very short petioles. Flowers white, about one-third of an inch broad, in elongated, slender racemes terminal on the branches, spicy-fragrant; calyx five-cleft, the segments oblong, blunt, nerved; petals five, very slightly united at the base, obovate; stamens ten; anthers sagittate, inverted in anthesis, the pollen sacs opening by apical pores; ovary three-celled, style longer than the stamens, with three stigmas. Fruit pods almost globose, about one-eighth of an inch long.

In marshy or swampy ground or low, sandy fields and wet woods near the coast from Maine to Florida and Mississippi. Flowering in July and August.

Memoir 15 N. Y. State Museum

Plate 147

B. Sweet Pepper Bush; White Alder - Clethra alnifolia