VACCINIACEAE. 

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Family 5. VACCINIACEAE Lindl. 



Huckleberry Family. 



Shrubs, or small trees, with alternate leaves, and small perfect flowers, 

 the pedicels commonly bracted. Calyx-tube adnate to the ovary, the 

 limb 4-5-lobed or 4-5-cleft. Corolla 4-5-lobed, or rarely divided into 

 separate petals, deciduous. Stamens twice as many as the corolla-lobes, 

 epigynous, or inserted at the base of the corolla ; filaments mostly short ; 

 anthers dorsally attached, 2-celled, the connective entire or 2-awned. 

 Ovary inferior, 2-io-celled, crowned by the epigynous disk; style fili- 

 form'; ovules anatropous. Fruit a berry or drupe in our genera, globose ; 

 cells i -several-seeded, or the drupe containing several nutlets. Seeds 

 compressed; testa bony; endosperm fleshy; embryo central ; radicle 

 near the hilum. About 20 genera and 300 species of wide distribution. 



Ovary lo-celled; fruit a berry-like drupe with i-seeded 10 nutlets. i. Gaylussacia. 



Ovary 4-s-celled; fruit a many-seeded berry. 

 Corolla open- campanulate, 4-5-lobed. 



Flowers 4-parted ; leaves small, coriaceous, persistent; low shrub. 



2. Vitis-Idaea. 



Flowers 5-parted; leaves large, thin, deciduous; tall shrubs. 

 Flower not jointed with its pedicel; anthers exserted. 3. Polycodium. 



Flower jointed with its pedicel; anthers included; berry black. 4. Batodendron. 

 Corolla cylindric, subglobose or urceolate. 



Erect shrubs; ovary entirely inferior; berries normally not white. 



5. Vaccinium. 



Low trailing shrub; ovary half inferior; berry snow-white. 6. Chiogenes. 

 Corolla deeply 4-cleft or 4-divided, the lobes reflexed. 7. Oxy coccus. 



i. GAYLUSSACIA H.B.K. 



Branching shrubs, with alternate leaves, and small white or pink flowers in 

 lateral bracted racemes. Pedicels mostly 2-bracteolate. Calyx-tube obconic, or 

 turbinate, the limb 5-lobed or 5 -toothed, persistent. Corolla urn-shaped, or 

 tubular-campanulate, the tube terete or 5 -angled, the limb 5-lobed. Stamens 

 10, equal; filaments short; anther-sacs tapering upward into tubes, awnless, open- 

 ing by terminal pores or chinks. [Named for the celebrated chemist, Gay-Lussac.] 

 About 40 American species. Besides the following, 3 others occur in the Southern 

 States. 



Laaves paje and glaucous beneath, resinous; fruit blue with abloom, i. G. frondosa. 

 Leaves green both sides, resinous; fruit mostly black. 



Bracts small, deciduous, mostly shorter than the pedicels. 2. G. resinosa. 



Bracts oval, large, persistent, longer than the pedicels. 3. G. dumosa. 



Leaves thick, evergreen, serrate, not resinous; bracts scale-like. 4. G. brachycera. 



1. Gaylussacia frondosa (L.) T. & G. BLUE TANGLE. TANGLEBERRY. 

 DANGLEBERRY. (I. F. f. 2779.) An erect shrub, 6-12 dm. high. Leaves oval to 

 obovate, obtuse or retuse, entire, 3.5-6.5 cm. long, the upper surface green, gla- 

 brous; petioles about 2 mm. long; flowers few, greenish pink; bracts linear-oblong, 

 shorter than the filiform pedicels, deciduous; corolla globose-campanulate, 3 mm. 

 long; filaments glabrous; fruit globose, about 8 mm. in diameter, sweet. In moist 

 woods, N. H. to Fla., Ohio and La. May -June. 



2. Gaylussacia resinosa (Ait.) T. & G. BLACK OR HIGH-BUSH HUCKLE- 

 BERRY. (I. F. f. 2780.) A shrub, 3-9 dm. high, the young shoots commonly 

 pubescent. Leaves oval or oblong, rarely obovate, entire, mucronulate, glabrous or 

 nearly so, firm, 2.5-5 cm - l n g; petioles about 2 mm. long; flowers few, pink or 

 red. in one-sided racemes; corolla ovoid-conic, 5-angled, becoming campanulate- 

 cylindric, 4-5 mm. long; filaments ciliate; fruit (rarely white) about 6 mm. in 

 diameter, sweet but seedy. In woods and thickets, Newf. to Ga., Manitoba, Wis. 

 and Ky. May-June. 



Gaylussacia resinosa glaucocirpa Robinson. Fruit blue, with a bloom, larger than 

 that of the type. Me. to N. Car. 



