Shrubs or small trees, sometimes low and creeping. Leaves usually alternate, sometimes opposite or whorled, rigid, simple, entire "or serrate; stipules wanting. Flowers regular, hermaphrodite. Calyx inferior, 4–5-toothed or -cleft. Corolla gamopetalous, hvpogynous, regular, often campanulate or urceolate, 4–5-toothed or -lobed (in some exotic genera divided into 4–5 free petals). Stamens usually double the number of the corolla-lobes, rarely the same number, hypogynous or sometimes adnate to the base of the corolla; filaments free; anthers 2-celled, opening by terminal pores or slits, often furnished with appendages. Ovary superior, 4–5-celled; style simple, terminal; stigma capitate, entire or shortly lobed; ovules usually many, attached to the inner angle of the cell or pendulous from the top of the angle. Fruit a capsule or berry, sometimes enclosed in the enlarged and succulent calyx (Gaultheria). Seeds usually numerous, small; albumen fleshy; embryo straight, axile.

A large order, widely spread over the whole world, especially in temperate and cool regions, but singularly rare in Australia and New Zealand, where its place is taken by the allied family Epacrideœ. In the tropics it is principally found on high mountains. Genera between 50 and 60; species not far from 1200. The properties of the order are unimportant, but it contains some of the most beautiful shrubs cultivated in gardens, as the various kinds of Rhododendron, Azalea, Erica, Arbutus, &c. Of the two genera found in New Zealand, Gaultheria has a wide range in Asia and America, and is also found in Australia; Pernettya is principally South American, but occurs in Tasmania as well.

Fruit dry, capsular, usually enclosed in the enlarged and succulent calyx	1. Gaultheria.
Fruit a berry, calyx persistent at its base, but not fleshy nor enlarged	2. Pernettya.

Gaultheria, Kahn.

Erect or procumbent shrubs, often hispid or strigose. Leaves persistent, alternate, usually serrate or serrulate, coriaceous. Flowers small, racemose or axillary and solitary. Calyx 5-lobed or -partite, in fruit usually enlarged and more or less succulent and coloured. Corolla urceolate or campanulate, 5-lobed; lobes imbricate, spreading or recurved. Stamens 10, included within the corolla-tube; filaments more or less dilated; anthers 2-celled, each cell opening by a terminal or oblique pore and tipped with 2 erect awns. Ovary 5-celled, with several ovules in each cell; style cylindric; stigma simple. Capsule 5-celled, loculicidally 5-valved, included in the usually enlarged and succulent calyx. Seeds numerous, minute, subglobose or obtusely angled.

A genus of nearly 100 species, mainly American, stretching from Oregon to Cape Horn, a few found in Australia and New Zealand, some in India and the Malay Archipelago, and one in Japan. In the New Zealand species the calyx is sometimes enlarged and succulent and sometimes dry and unaltered when the page 405 fruit is ripe, and occasionally the capsule may be slightly succulent, thus breaking down the distinction between Pernettya and Gaultheria. One of the species extends to Tasmania, the remainder are endemic.

* Leaves alternate. Flowers axillary, the tips of the branches sometimes forming leafy racemes

Stems erect or prostrate. Leaves very variable, orbicular to linear-oblong	1. G. antipoda.
Stems slender, flexuous, often intertwined. Leaves linear-lanceolate	2. G. perplexa.

** Leaves alternate. Flowers in axillary and terminal racemes.

Leaves oblong-lanceolate to broad-oblong	3. G. rupestris.
Leaves ovate oblong, cordate at the base	4. G. fagi folia.

*** Leaves opposite. Flowers in axillary and terminal often compound racemes.

Leaves ovate or ovate-oblong, cordate at the base, sessile.

5. G. oppositifolia.

2.Pernettya, Gaud.

Glabrous or hispid rigid shrubs, usually of small size. Leaves small, alternate, shortly petiolate, penniveiued, serrate. Flowers small, axillary and solitary or racemose. Calyx 5-partite, not enlarged and succulent in fruit. Corolla urceolate or almost globose, shortly 5-lobed; lobes recurved. Stamens 10, included within the corolla-tube; filaments dilated at the base; anthers 2-celled, dehiscing by a large terminal pore, cells each with 2 erect awns. Ovary 5-lobed and 5-celled; ovules several in each cell; style cylindrical; stigma simple. Berry globose, 5-celled. Seeds numerous, minute, compressed.

A genus comprising about 15 species, all American except the one described below and a closely allied one from the mountains of Tasmania.

Pernettya macrostigma, Col. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xxi. (1889) 92, is shown by the type specimens in Mr. Oolenso's herbarium to be Qaultheria cmtipoda var. microphylla. In like manner, P. polyphylla, Col. l.c. xxxi. (1899) 274, is identical with Pentachondra pumila.