400 WOODY PLANTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



covered with a pearly epidermis, which gives it an ashy color. 

 The leaves are on very short petioles, oblong, elliptic, or obo- 

 vate, obtuse, with a callous, whitish point, revolute on the mar- 

 gin, lighter beneath. The flowers hang dangling on slender 

 strings from one to three inches long, with an ovate bract at 

 base, and two minute bracts on opposite sides, about the middle. 

 The calyx-segments are appressed and acute ; the corolla a 

 broad bell, like that of the lily of the valley, with five, short, 

 angular segments, completely refiexed. The style is as long 

 as the corolla; the stamens considerably shorter. 



The fruit is large, bluish, rather acid, ripening late. It is 

 rarely found in abundance ; where it is procured in sufficient 

 quantities, as in some parts of Worcester County, it is used for 

 puddings. This species comes to greater perfection in a warmer 

 climate. In Pennsylvania, its berries are preferred to those of 

 any other whortleberry. 



It is found in moist situations, by the side of lakes and on 

 the edges of woods. 



Sp. 3. The Bush Whortleberry. V. dumbsiim. Andrews. 



A shrub one or two feet high, distinguished for its shining 

 leaves, which are sessile, broad-lanceolate or obovate, wedge- 

 shaped, acute, entire, mucronate or ending in a short, abrupt, 

 awl-like point, conspicuously dotted above with resinous dots, 

 and set, as are the recent shoots, with short, numerous, 

 glutinous hairs, which, on the margin, give it a ciliate ap- 

 pearance. The stem and older branches are covered with an 

 ash-colored, roughish bark ; the recent branches are brownish, 

 downy and somewhat viscid with a few glandular hairs. Ra- 

 cemes of five flowers, leafy, covered with the same glutinous 

 hairs. Each pedicel proceeds from the axil of an oval leaflet, 

 and is furnished, about its middle, with one to three bractiolas. 

 The segments of the glandular calyx are rather large, somewhat 

 acute, and fringed. Corolla large, wax-white, often with a tinge 

 of pink, rounded or funnel-shaped, remarkable for its five pro- 

 minent, keel-like angles, with the segments obtuse and recurved. 

 Anthers very long, brown, cleft nearly to their base into two 

 needle-like threads, resting on the top of a short, fleshy, white 



