Genus 2. 



HUCKLEBERRY FAMILY. 



697 



Cluster-berries. Fruit ripe 



2. VITIS-IDAEA (Tourn.) Hill, Brit Herb. 516. 1756. 



A low evergreen shrub, with creeping stems, alternate oval or obovate coriaceous leaves, 

 and small white or pink nodding flowers, secund in small terminal clusters. Calyx 4-toothed. 

 Corolla open-campanuLate, 4-lobed. Stamens 8; anthers upwardly prolonged into tubes; fila- 

 ments pubescent. Ovary 4-celled, inferior. Fruit a dark red acid many-seeded berry. 

 [Ancient name.] 



A monotypic genus of the north temperate and arctic zones. 



I. Vitis-Idaea Vitis-Idaea (L.) Britton. 

 Mountain Cranberry. Wind- or Cow- 

 berry. Fig. 3256. 



Vacchuum Vitis-Idaea L. Sp. PL 351. I753. 

 Vitis-Idaea Vitis-Idaea Britton, Bull. N. Y. Bot. Gard. 3: 



179. 1903. 

 Vaccinum Vitis-Idaea minus Lodd. Bot. Cab. pi. 102s. 



1825- 



Branches erect, terete, 3'-8' high, puberulent or 

 glabrous. Leaves thick, persistent, crowded, green 

 and somewhat shining above, paler and black-dotted 

 beneath, quite glabrous, or minutely ciliate toward 

 the base, obovate or oval, short-petioled, entire or 

 sparingly serrulate, 3"-8" long, the margins revo- 

 lute; flowers longer than their pedicels; bracts 

 reddish, short-oblong, tardily deciduous; bractlets 2; 

 berries dark red, acid, 4"-5" in diameter. 



In rocky places, Essex Co., Mass., coast of Maine, 

 higher mountains of New England to Labrador and 

 arctic America, west to Lake Superior, British Colum- 

 bia and Alaska. Ascends to 5300 ft. in the Adirondacks. 

 Also in northern Europe and Asia. Fruit used as a sub- 

 stitute for cranberries. June-July. Flowering box. 

 Ling- or wine-berry. Red whortleberry or bilberry. Rock-cranberry 

 Aug.-Sept. 



3. POLYCODIUM Raf. Am. :\Tontli. :\Iag. 2: 266. 1818. 



PiCRCOCCUS Nutt. Trans. Am. Phil. Soc. II. 8: 262. 1843. 



Shrubs with alternate deciduous leaves, and purplish or yellowish green flowers in leafy- 

 bracted racemes, jointed with their pedicels. Calyx 5-toothed. Corolla open-campanulate, 

 5-lobed. Stamens 10; anthers upwardly prolonged into tubes, exserted. Ovary 5-celled, 

 inferior; style exserted. Berry green, nearly black, or yellow, globose to pyriform. [Greek, 

 many bells.] 



Three or four species of eastern North America. Type species: l^accinium sta>niueuni L. 



I. Polycodium stamineum ( L. ) Greene. Deer- 

 berry. Buckberry. Fig. 3257. 



Vacciiiiutn stamineum L. Sp. PI, 350. 1753. 



Polycodium stainincitiii Greene, Pittonia ^: 324. 1898. 



A divergently branched shrub, 2-s' high, with 

 pubescent or glabrous twigs. Leaves oval, oblong 

 or rarely obovate, acute or sometimes acuminate at 

 the apex, petioled, entire, firm, green above, pale and 

 glaucous or slightly pubescent beneath, i'-4' long, 

 I'-is' wide; flowers very numerous in graceful leafy- 

 bracted racemes, jointed with their spreading or 

 pendulous filiform pedicels; calyx glabrous or nearly 

 so ; corolla open-campanulate, purplish or yellowish 

 green, deeply 5-cleft, 2"-3" long, 3"-5" broad ; bracts 

 usually persistent; berry globose or pear-shaped, 

 green or yellow, 4"-$" in diameter, inedible. 



In dry woods and thickets, Maine ( ?), Massachusetts to 

 southern Ontario an:l Minnesota, south to Florida, Ken- 

 tucky and Louisiana. Consists of several races, differing 

 in amount of pubescence and in color of the fruit. 

 Squawberry. Squaw-huckleberry or -whortleberry. 

 Dangleberry. Gooseberry. April-June. 



Polycodium melanocarpum (C. Mohr) Small, is pubescent, with a pubescent calyx and deep 

 purple palatable fruit. It inhabits the Southern States, and is recorded as far north as Missouri. 



