1354 



FACCINIUM* ovatum. 

 Ovate-leaved Bilberry, 



OCTANDRIA OR DECANDRIA MONOGYNIA. 



Nat. ord. Vaccinie/e. 

 VACCINIUM.— Supra, vol. 4. fol. 302. 



Y. ovatum; ramulis hirtis, foliis sempervirentibus ovatis coriaceis lucidis 

 serratis glabris margine revolutis, racemis brevibus axillaribus deflexis, 

 corollis subglobosis .5-dentatis, calycinis dentibus acutis. 

 V. ovatum. Purshfi. am. sept. 1. 290. Spreng. syst. 2. 212. 



Frutex dense foliosus, sempervirens, pedalis v. bipedalis, ramulis hirtis 

 patentibus, v. recurvis. Folia coriacea, lucida, ovata, acuta, serrata, sub- 

 disticha, breviter petiolata, utrinque glaberrima ; petiolis pubescentibus. 

 Racemi foliis breviores, dejiexi, sub foliis latentes, glabriusculi, bracteis 

 brevibrcs, ovatis, cucidlatis. Ovarium subrotundum, glabrum ; calycis dentes 

 breves, acutce, rubrce. Corolla subglobosa, carnea, 5-dentata ; dentibus 

 brevibus, acutis, medio sanguineis. Baccae pisi magnitudine. 



A native of the north-west of America, whence it was 

 sent to the Horticultural Society. It is a hardy handsome 

 evergreen shrub, flowering in March and April. 



The figure represents the state of the plant when about 



* The lexicographers say this word is of unknov?n meaning. It is not 

 mentioned by Pliny, but is familiar to the classical reader by its occurrence 

 in the Eclogues of Virgil. It is supposed by some that Virgil's Vaccinia 

 nigra were the flowers of Delphinium Ajacis, a plant which has been conjec- 

 tured to be the vxaiv^o? of the Greeks ; and hence it has been thought that 

 Vaccinium itself was nothing more than a Latin alteration of Hyacinthus or 

 Vacinthus. But it is most probable that the Hyacinthus of the poets was 

 Gladiolus communis, on the flowers of which Ai Ai is distinctly marked ; 

 and then the term Vaccinia nigra could not be applied to the Hyacinthus, 

 if it were to Delphinium, as seems really to have been the intention of 

 Virgil, who was no doubt speaking of flowers, and not of fruit, when he 

 wrote 



" Alba ligustra cadunt, Vaccinia nigra leguntur." 



