ERI'CEE, or ERICA'CEzE, a natural order of exogenous plants, consisting chiefly of small shrubs, but containing also some trees. The leaves are opposite or in whorls, entire, destitute of stipules, often small, generally evergreen and rigid. The flowers are sometimes solitary in the axils of the leaves, sometimes grouped in different modes of inflorescence, and are often of great beauty, in which respect no order of plants excels this; the beauty of the smallest species, and of those which have very small flowers, rivaling that of others which are trees profusely covered with magnificent clusters. About 900 species of this order are known, of which the greater number are natives of South Africa, which particularly abounds in the genus erica, and its allies— the true heaths (q.v.)—although some of them are also found to the utmost limits of northern vegetation. They are rare Within the tropics, and only occur at considerable elevations. Few species are found in Australia. Many of the E. are social plants, and a single species sometimes covers great tracts, constituting their principal vegetation.
This is most strikingly exemplified in the heaths of Europe and the north of Asia. Medic inal properties exist in some of the E., as the BEARBERRY (see ARBUTUS), and the. Guouxo LAUREL of North America (epigaa repens), a popular remedy in the United States for affections of the bowels and urinary organs. Narcotic and poisonous quali ties are of not unfrequent occurrence. See ANDROMEDA, AZALEA, KALMIA, LEDUM, RHODODENDRON. The berries of Mlle species are edible (see ARBUTUS and GAULTHE RIA), although none are much esteemed.—The RHODODENDRE,E have sometimes been regarded as a distinct order, but are generally considered a suborder of E., containing the genera rhododendron, azalea, kalmia, sedum, etc. The larger leaves and flowers, and generally also the larger plants of the order, belong to•this suborder; which, how ever, contains also many small shrubs of subarctic and elevated mountainous regions.