550 Robinson: Polycodtum 



It is this, that in this group the corollas are open in the bud! For 

 from ten days to two weeks before the actual flowering, and even 

 from the time that the buds are green and scarcely larger than a 

 pin-head, the corolla is open and campanulate. This is another 

 character otherwise unknown in the family of plants to which 

 these belong. Certainly in Vaccinium and Gaylussacia the buds 

 are tightly closed, in an imbricate aestivation, until the corollas 

 are full-grown and the anthers mature." 



Now of vacciniaceous plants found within the limits of the 

 United States, the genera that are almost universally recognized 

 are Chio genes, Gaylussacia, and Vaccinium. Even regarding these 

 there is some controversy. Chiogenes is readily distinguished by 

 the position of the ovary, only slightly inferior in flower, distinctly 

 inferior in fruit, and while American and British authors of recent 

 years have agreed in placing it near Vaccinium, German authors 

 on the other hand believe the closest affinity to be Gaultheria; and 

 it can hardly be denied that its position is somewhat intermediate, 



There is no doubt as to the identity of Gaylussacia, as it 

 was published as monotypic, its type, G. buxifolia H. B. K., 

 agreeing with many species now known from South America, in 

 the possession of evergreen leaves and non-succulent fruit as well 

 as of a io-celled ovary. The only species described as a Gaylus- 

 sacia from Mexico or Central America does not belong to the genus, 

 all of the species so called in the United States have succulent 

 fruit, and all but one have deciduous leaves. Niedenzu* has 

 placed that one in the Vitis-Idaea section of Vaccinium, and the 

 other North American species in the Cyanococcus section of 

 Vaccinium, retaining the name Gaylussacia for South American 

 species only. 



Kuntze,f also, has taken up the name Adnaria Raf.J for 

 Gaylussacia, but the most positive thing that can be said about 

 Robin's description, § upon which Rafinesque's was based, is that 

 it does not agree with that of any species of the family found in 

 America and in particular disagrees with Gaylussacia in the very 

 character relied on for its differentiation, the number of cells in 

 the ovary. 



*Engl. Bot. Jahrb. n: 193. 1889. 



t Rev. Gen. PL 382. 1891. 



t Fl. Ludov. 56. 181 7. 



§ Voy. Int. Louisiana 3: 422. 1807. 



