HEATH FAMILY 



53 



Big Lagoon does not differ in any essential manner from many Alaskan or north European (espe- 

 cially Scandinavian) plants representative of V. uliginosum, in which muerouulate or quite obtuse 



leaves are often found on one individual. Typical Vac- 

 cinium uliginosum, as it occurs at Iliuliuk, Unalaska, 

 Aleutian Islands, has, sometimes, mucronulate and ob- 

 tuse leaves on the same bush {Jcpson 133). In Alaska 

 the berries are an important article of food both to the 

 Indians and the white settlers. 



Refs. — Vaccinium unGiNosnii L., Sp. PI. 350 

 (1753), type from Sweden; Howell, Fl. Nw. Am. 411 

 (1901). 



3. V. membranaceum Dougl. Thin-leaf 

 Huckleberry. (Fig. 302.) Shrub 2 to 4 feet 

 high, with widely spreading branches; branch- 

 lets slightly angled, those of the sea-son bearing 

 3 to 5 (not crowded) leaves; leaf -blades ovate 

 or obovate to oval, mostly acute or acuminate, 

 finely serrulate, membranous, both sides nearly 

 alike, 1 to 2 inches long; pedicels 3 to 5 lines 

 long; calyx entire; corolla depressed-globose, 

 greenish-white, 2 lines broad ; pedicels erect in 

 fruit; berry black or red (or at least red at 

 first). 



Mountain bogs, 5000 to 7000 feet: Hum- 

 boldt, Del Norte, Siskiyou and Modoc Cos. 

 North to British (Columbia. May-June. 



Loes. — 



Fig. 301. Vaccinuim uliginosum L. 

 a, fl. branchlet, X % ; 6, long. sect, of 

 fl., X 3 ; c, stamen, X 5; d, fr., X ¥2- 



Trinity 



Summit, 



n . Hum- 

 boldt Co., Davy 5759 ; Knownothing Creek (head of), 

 near Salmon Summit, Tracy 14,419; Bear Basin, e. 

 Del Norte Co., Huhy Van Deventer G7 ; Ilaypress 

 Mdw., Marble Mt. region, w. Siskiyou Co., Chandler 

 1577 : Lassen Creek, Modoc Co., L. S. Smith 907. 



Kefs. — Vaccinium membranaceum Dougl.; 

 Hook., Fl. Bor. Am. 2 : 32 ( 1834) , type from the "North- 

 west Coast," Menzies; Jepson, Man. 752 (1925). V. 

 myrtiUoides var. macrophyllum Hook., I.e. V. iriacro- 

 phyllum Piper, Contrib. U.S.Nat. Herb. 11 : 443 (1906). 



4. V. caespitosum Miehx. Dwarf Bil- 

 berry. (Fig. 303.) Dwarfish, depressed, 2 

 to 4 inches high, or at lower altitudes to 9 

 inches high; branehlets not angled; herbage 

 glabrous; leaf -blades obovate, mostly acute, 

 usually cuneate at ba.se, finely serrulate, I/2 

 to % (or 1-V4) inches long; pedicels 1 to 2 

 lines long; calyx rim a wavy border or entire; 

 corolla pendulous, pink or white, ovoid, 

 mostly 5-toothed; berry blue with a bloom, 

 globose, 2i'2 to 3I/2 lines in diameter, on a 

 curved pedicel. 



Montane wet meadows and rocky ridges : 

 Sierra Nevada, 6500 to 11,600 feet, from Tu- 

 lare Co. to Modoc Co. ; high North Coast Ranges, 5000 to 7000 feet, from Humboldt 

 and Trinity Cos. to Siskiyou Co.; along the coast (in wet meadows), 5 to 100 feet, 

 from Himi'boldt Bay to Del Norte Co. North to Alaska, ea.st to Colorado and New 

 England. June-July. 



Fig. 302. 

 Dougl. a, 

 long. sect, of fl., X 3 

 berry, X 1. 



Vaccinium membranaceum 



flowering branch, X Vz ; h, 



c, stamen, X 5; d. 



