Tas. 6872, 
VACCINIUM Mortinta. 
Native of the Andes of Ecuador. 
Nat. Ord. VacctnracE®.—Tribe Evvacctniex. 
Genus Vaccinium, Linn. ; (Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. Pl. vol. ii. p. 573.) 
Vaccinium (Vitis idea) Mortinia ; frutex ramosissimus, foliosus, ramulis pubes- 
centibus, foliis }-pollicaribus breviter petiolatis ovatis v. ovato-oblongis -lanceo- 
latisve acutis cartilagineo-serrulatis epunctatis costa petiolisque puberulis, 
nervis obscuris, racemis axillaribus folio paulo longioribus, floribus congestis 
cernuis, calycis lobis late ovatis obtusis acutis acuminatisve, corolla rosea 
oblongo-urceolata 5-dentata, filamentis hirsutis antheris quilongis, bacca 
globosa. 
V. Mortinia, Benth. Plant. Hartweg. p. 221. 
A native of the Andes of Ecuador and New Grenada, 
ascending to an elevation of 11,000 feet on Pichincha, 
where it was discovered by Hartweg when collecting for 
the Royal Horticultural Society, and has been subsequently 
collected by Spruce, Jameson and others. What appears 
to be the same plant has been gathered in the Cordillera 
of Peru by Lechler (No. 2213), and on the Sierra Nevada 
of Santa Martha in New Grenada by Purdie, who describes 
it as reaching the snow-line. It is known by the native 
name of Mortina, under which the fruit is brought to the 
market of Quito. Hartweg describes it as more acid thaa 
that of V. Myrtillus. 
Like most of the Andean plants from great elevations, 
V. Mortinia is probably only half hardy. The plant culti- 
vated at Kew was received from Mr. Max Leichtlin in 1884, 
and flowered in a cool greenhouse in April, 1885. From 
specimens in the Kew Herbarium, the late Mr. Isaac 
_ Anderson Henry seems also to have had it in cultivation in 
1870, no doubt raised from seeds sent by his correspondent 
Dr. Jameson. : 
Descr. A small woody densely-branched leafy shrub, 
two to three feet high; branches pubescent with short 
hairs or nearly glabrous, the lower stout, upper slender. 
aPEit Isr, 1886, 
