Genus i. 



HUCKLEBERRY FAMILY. 



695 



inserted at the base of the corolla; filaments usually flattened, mostly short; 

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

 inferior, 2-10-celled, crowned by the epigynous disk; style filiform; stigma simple, 

 or minutely 4-5-dentate; ovules solitary, or several in each cavity, 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 geographic distribution. 

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



Ovary 4-5-celled ; fruit a many-seeded berry. 

 Corolla open-campanulate, 4-5-Iobed. 



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

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

 Flower not jointed with its pedicel ; anthers exserted. 

 Flower jointed with its pedicel : anthers included; berry black. 

 Corolla cylindric, subglobose or urceolate. 



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

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

 Corolla deeply 4-cIeft or 4-divided, the lobes reflexed. 



I. Gaytussacia. 



2. Vitis-Idaea. 



3. Polycodium. 



4. Batodendron. 



5. Vaccinium, 



6. Chiogenes. 



7. Oxycoccus, 



I. GAYLUSSACIA H.B.K. Nov. Gen. 3: 275. pi. 257. 1819. 



[?Adnaria Raf. Fl. Ludov. 56. 1817] 



[Dec.^merium Niitt. Trans. Am. Phil. Soc. IL 8: 259. 1843.] 



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

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

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

 late, the tube terete or s-angled, the limb 5-lobed, the lobes erect or recurved. Stamens 10, 

 equal, usually included; filaments short and distinct; anther-sacs tapering upward into tubes, 

 awnless, opening by terminal pores or chinks. Fruit a berry-like drupe with 10 seed-like 

 nutlets, each containing a single seed. [Named for the celebrated chemist, Gay-Lussac] 



About 40 American species. Besides the following, another occurs in the southern Alleghenies. 

 Type species : Caylussacta buxifolia H.B.K. 



I. G. frondosa. 



Leaves pale and glaucous beneath, resinous ; fruit blue with a bloom. 

 Leaves green both sides, resinous ; fruit black, or sometimes blue. 



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



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



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



I. Gaylussacia frondosa (L.) T. & G. Blue 



Tangle. Tangleberry. Dangleberry. 



Huckleberry. Fig. 3252. 



Vaccinium frondosum L. Sp. PI. 351. 1753. 



G. frondosa T. & G. ; Torr. FI. N. Y. i : 449. 1843. 



An erect shrub, 2-4 high, with numerous spread- 

 ing or ascending slender gray branches. Leaves 

 oval to obovate, obtuse or retuse, entire, ii'-2i' long 

 when mature, usually thin, the lower surface gla- 

 brous or pubescent, pale or glaucous, and sprinkled 

 with resinous globules, the upper surface green, usu- 

 ally glabrous; petioles about i" long; flowers few, 

 nodding, greenish pink in loose racemes ; bracts 

 linear-oblong, shorter than the filiform mostly 

 2-bracteoIate pedicels, deciduous ; corolla globose- 

 campanulate, ij" long; filaments glabrous, shorter 

 than the anthers ; fruit globose, dark blue with a 

 glaucous bloom, about 4" in diameter, sweet. 



In moist woods. New Hampshire to Virginia, Alabama, Ohio and Louisiana. Blue whortle- 

 berry. May-June. Fruit ripe July-Aug. 



Gaylussacia ursina CM. A. Curtis) T. & G.. with acuminate leaves green on both sides and 

 black fruit, native of the southern Alleghanies, is erroneously recorded from Kentucky. 



