Ar"bu*tus (#), Ar"bute (#), n. [L. arbutus, akin to arbor tree.]
The strawberry tree, a genus of evergreen shrubs, of the Heath family. It has a berry externally resembling the strawberry; the arbute tree.
Trailing arbutus Bot., a creeping or trailing plant of the Heath family (Epigaea repens), having white or usually rose-colored flowers with a delicate fragrance, growing in small axillary clusters, and appearing early in the spring; in New England known as mayflower; -- called also ground laurel.
Gray.
© Webster 1913.