52 CHLORIS BOREALI-AMERICANA. 



In the note already referred to,* I spoke of the fruit of these 

 plants as if really decacarpcllary (which is probably not the case) ; 

 for, although I then stated that several of the more common true 

 Vaccinia "exhibit a more or less completely 8-10-celled ovary, 

 but with many ovules in each cell," yet I was not aware, until af- 

 terwards, of the mode in which the proper cells of the ovary are 

 divided by a spurious partition, nor, indeed, has any account of it 

 yet been published. The peculiarity in question, which was first 

 shown to me in Vaccinium corymbosum by Mr. Sullivant, and after- 

 wards by Dr. Torrey, in V. stamineum, — and which may be held 

 to explain the increased number of cells in Gaylussacia, — is, that 

 a projection of the back, or midrib, of each carpel extends into the 

 cell until it meets (and sometimes coheres with) the corresponding 

 placenta projecting from the axis, so as to divide each cell into two. 

 This is represented in Tab. X., Fig. 6, as seen in Vaccinium co- 

 rymbosum. A similar case has recently been brought to light, 

 by Mr. Bentham, in Nelitris and some other baccate Myrtaceae.f 



This character may be turned to good account in reducing the 

 Vaccinia to natural sections or subgenera. % 



Gaylussacia," yet, on the same page, one of his species is justly characterized as 

 having " something of the habit of a Gaylussacia." 



* Bot. Excurs., &c., in Sill. Journ., I. c, Jan., 1842. 

 + London Journal of Botany, Vol. II., 1843, p. 221. 



J The North American species may be disposed under the following sections : — 



VACCINIUM, Linn. 

 § 1. OxYcoccus. Ovarium 4-loculare, septis spuriis nuUis. Corolla 4-partita, 

 lobis elongatis revolutis. Antherse exaristatse : filamenta pilosa. — Floras solitarii 

 axillares, vel in racemis fasciculisve terminalibus ; pedunculis filiformibus. 



* Foliis deciduis, caule erecto, baccis insipidis. — V. erythrocarpum, Michx. 



** Foliis persistentibus, caulibus prostratis, baccis acidis. — V. Oxycoccus, L. 

 V. macrocarpon, Ait. 



