Addisonia 17 



(Plate 201) 

 GAYLUSSACIA BRACHYCERA 

 Box-huckleberry 



Native of eaUern Pennsylvania, eastern Maryland, and Delaware 



Family Vacciniaceae; Huckleberry Family 



Vaccinium hrachycerum Michx. Fl. Bor. Am. 1: 227. 1803. 

 Vaccinium buxifolium Salisb. Parad. Lond. pi. 4. 1806. 

 Gaylussacia brachycera A. Gray, Mem. Am. Acad. II. 3: 54. 1846. 



Some of our native plants, both genera and species, seem to be on 

 the verge of extinction. The box-huckleberry was doubtless more 

 abundant in the past; it scarcely could have been less so. At 

 present, only four plants are known in the wild state. Whether 

 unfavorable meteorologic or pyric conditions or very destructive 

 organic epidemics, resulted in its decrease, we shall never know. 



The several plants referred to above vary in size from a few square 

 feet to m.any acres in extent. The growth is apparently connected 

 under ground and each plant is essentially sterile to its own pollen 

 and practically no seedlings are produced in nature. Thus the evi- 

 dence indicates that the four "colonies" are really four individuals. 



The species was discovered in Virginia by Andre Michaux about 

 the end of the eighteenth century. This locality was not again 

 found; the plant may have been destroyed. About half a century 

 later it was discovered in the mountains of eastern Pennsylvania. 

 This remained the sine qua non and a mecca for plant-lovers for 

 about a quarter of a century. Then a second plant was found in 

 the very heart of Delaware — in the Coastal Plain. About the close 

 of another half century, following the passing away of the genera- 

 tion of botanists responsible for the discoveries referred to above, 

 the succeeding generation have added two more plants to the list. 

 One again in the mountains of eastern Pennsylvania, the other 

 again in the Coastal Plain, this time, however, in Maryland, on 

 the western side of Chesapeake Bay. 



If the box-huckleberry could be successfully cultivated it would 

 supply the most beautiful native evergreen woody ground-cover. 

 Its leaves resemble those of a southern holly — the cassjne — and 

 when densely placed in patches or banks of greenery they form a 

 unique ground-cover. The effect of the verdure is greatly enhanced 

 at times, in the spring by the myriads of bright pink flowers and in 



