98 Rhodora [JUNE 
expanded. In the intermediate belt, in eastern Pennsylvania for 
instance, the specimens are quite transitional in this character. In 
general, too, the calyx-lobes of the southern plant have smoother 
surfaces than in the northern, but this character is less obvious than 
is the presence or absence of glands upon the upper surfaces of the 
mature leaves and bracts. In this latter point the northern bog plant 
is so readily distinguished from the southern plant of dry sands that 
it seems best to separate them varietally. But when we approach 
the question of determining which was the original Gaylussacia dumosa 
we encounter some difficulty. The species, first designated as Vacci- 
nium dumosum by Andrews in 1800, was inadequately described, the 
English reading: ‘‘Whortle-berry with oval, pointed, smooth leaves; 
flowers grow solitary from the foot-stalk of the leaves, close to the 
stem; foot-stalks of the flowers are very long, having floral leaves; 
blossoms pitcher-shaped, nearly white; ten chives.” ! The colored 
plate is very crude and shows neither pubescence nor glands upon 
the foliage, branchlets or even the calyx, so that it is impossible to 
say from the plate and description which extreme of the species 
Andrews had. In the note following the description, however, 
occurs the significant statement :— 
“This species of Whortle-berry is a neat, compact, bushy shrub; 
and like all the rest of those which have ten chives, and the other 
parts consonant, can scarcely be considered as a hardy plant; for 
although it will live through a mild winter, if planted in a warm and 
dry situation, on an open border; yet it will in general be destroyed, 
by the severe frosts which happen late in spring... . . As a hardy green- 
house plant it is best preserved in a flourishing state, and will flower 
about the month of June; in which month, this year, our drawing 
was made, at the nursery of Messrs. Lee and Kennedy, by whom it 
was introduced from North America in the year 1783.” 
From this note it seems most probable that Vaccinium dumosum 
was based upon the southern shrub of dry soils. The name was thus 
used by Pursh and other early American botanists, and as already 
noted the northern bog plant was treated by Jacob Bigelow as dis- 
tinct, although the name he used for it unfortunately belonged to a 
southern extreme of the same group. In default of better evidence 
in the matter it seems best to treat the southern plant as typical 
! Andrews, Bot. Rep. ii. t. 112 (1800). 
