Aromatic shrubs or small trees, deciduous in cool climates. Twigs rounded or angular, slender, resinous-dotted when young; pith small, somewhat angled, continuous, green. Buds small,solitary, sessile, sub-globose or ovoid, with 2 or 4 exposed scales; end-bud absent. Leaf-scars alternate, half-elliptical or somewhat 3-sided, more or less raised; bundle-traces 3; stipule-scars (if present) small. Fruit globose or ovoid, with a waxy coat or resinous dots.

a.

Buds conical or oblong; fruits covered with resin-drops

1.

M. gale

a.

Buds subglobose, obtuse; fruits white or drab, encrusted with heavy wax

b. Leaves mostly deciduous; twigs villous when young; fruit 4 mm. in diameter

2.

M. pensyl-vanica

b. Leaves evergreen; twigs essentially glabrous

c. Leaves 4-9 cm. long; fruits 2-3 mm. in diameter

3.

M. cerifera

c. Leaves 1-4 cm. long; fruits 3-4 mm. in diameter

4.

M. pusilla

1. _M. gale L. Sweet Gale. Shrub 0. 3-2 m. high, with strongly ascending brown branches; buds conical-ovoid. Swamps, Labrador to Alaska, south to New York, Minnesota and Oregon, and in the Appalachians to North Carolina and Tennessee (Fig. 36).

2. M. pensylvanica Loisel. Bayberry. Candleberry. ( M. caroliniensis of authors, not Mill.). Stout stiffly branched shrub 0. 3-2 m. high (rarely up to 4. 5 m. high, with a trunk 1. 2 dm. in diameter); branches mostly whitish-gray or drab, the young ones villous, pilose, or glabrate; buds about 4 mm. long; fruits covered with white wax, 3. 5-4. 5 mm. in diameter. Sterile soil, mostly in the coastal plain, North Carolina to Newfoundland, inland about Lake Erie (Fig. 37).

3. M_. cerifera L. Wax-Myrtle. Shrub or tree up to 12 m. high, with a trunk diameter up to 2 dm. ; young branches waxy, glabrous or sparsely pilose; leaves evergreen,narrowly oblanceolate, 4-9 cm. long and 0. 5-2 cm. broad, yellow-green, coriaceous, heavily coated with waxy granules; buds small, about 1mm. long, glandular-dotted; fruit 2-3 mm. in diameter. Thickets and swamps, Florida to Texas, north to New Jersey and Arkansas; mostly on the coastal plain (Fig. 38).

4. M. pusilla Raf. Dwarf Wax-Myrtle. Low colonial sto-loniferous shrub 0.2-2 m. high; branchlets waxy, glabrous or nearly so; leaves evergreen, coriaceous, oblanceolate to obovate and obtuse, 1. 5-4 cm. long; fruits 3-4 mm. in diameter. Pine barrens and woods, Florida to Texas, north to Delaware and Arkansas; mostly on the coastal plain (Fig. 39).

Fig. 36. Myrica gale

Fig. 36. Myrica gale.

Fig. 37. Myrica pensylvanica

Fig. 37. Myrica pensylvanica.

Fig. 38. Myrica cerifera

Fig. 38. Myrica cerifera.

Fig. 39. Myrica pusilla

Fig. 39. Myrica pusilla.