550 ROBINSON: POLYCODIUM 
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 Vacciniwm 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 Chiogenes, 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, 1n 
the possession of evergreen leaves and non-succulent fruit as well 
as of a 10-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.t 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 aed 
character relied on for its differentiation, the number of cells 1m 
the ovary. 1 
* Engl. Bot. Jahrb. 11: 193. 1889. 
t Rev. Gen. Pl. 382. 1891. 
Fl. Ludov. 56. 1817. 
§ Voy. Int. Louisiana 3: 422. 1807. 
