ERICACEAE. (HEATH FAMILY.) 2-17 



Suborder I. VACCINIE.E. The Whortleberry Family. 



1. GAYLUSSACIA, II. B. K. Huckleberry. 



Corolla tubular, ovoid, or bell-shaped ; the border 5-clcft. Stamens 10 : an- 

 thers awnless ; the cells tapering upward into more or less of a tube, opening 

 by a chink at the end. Fruit a berry-like drupe containing 10 seed-like nutlets. 

 — Branching shrubs, with the aspect of Vaccinium, commonly sprinkled with 

 resinous dots ; the flowers (white tinged with purple or red) in lateral and braeted 

 racemes. (Named for the distinguished chemist, Gay-Lussae.) 



* Leaves thick and evergreen, not resinous-doited. 



1. ii. t»rachycera, Gray. (Box-leavei> IIucklebekry.) Very 

 smooth (1° high) ; leaves oval, finely crenatc-toothed ; racemes short ami nearly 

 sessile; pedicels very short ; corolla cylindrical-bell-shaped. — Dry woods, Per- 

 ry County, Penn., near Bloomiield {Prof. Baird), ami mountains of Virginia. 

 May. — Leaves in shape and aspect like those of the Box. 



* * Leaves deciduous, entire, sprinkled more or less with resinous or waxy atoms. 



2. £r. duinusa, Torr. & Gr. (Dwarf Huckleberry.) Somewhat hairy 

 and glandular, low (1° high from a creeping base), bushy ; leaves obovate-ob- 

 long, mucronate, green both sides, rather thick and shining when old; racemes 

 elongated; bracts leaf-like, coal, persistent, as long as the pedicels; ovary bristly or 

 glandular; corolla bell-shaped ; fruit black (insipid). — Yar. hirtella has the 

 young branchlets, racemes, and often the leaves hairy. — Sandy low soil, Maine 

 to Virginia, near the coast, and southward;. June. 



3. G. ft'Oildosa, Torr. & Gr. (Blue Tangle. Dangleberrt.) 



Smooth (3°-6°high); branches slender and divergent; leaves obovate-oblong, 

 blunt, pale, glaucous beneath ; racemes slender, loose ; bracts oblong or linear, decid- 

 uous, shorter than the slender drooping pedicels ; corolla globular-bell-shaped ; fruit 

 dark blue with a white bloom (sweet and edible). — Low copses, coast of New 

 England to Kentucky, and southward. May, June. 



4. O. resiliosa, Torr. & Gr. (Black Huckleberry.) Much branched, 

 rigid, slightly pubescent when young (1°- 3° high) ; leaves oval, oblong-ovate, or 



oblong, thickly clothed and at first clammy, as well as the flowers, with shining 

 resinous globules ; racemes short, clustered, one-sided ; pedicels about the length 

 of the flowers ; bracts and bract/ets {reddish) small and deciduous; corolla ovoid- 

 conical, or at length cylindrical with an open mouth ; fruit black, without bloom 

 (pleasant). — Woodlands and swamps; common. May, June. — The common 

 Huckleberry of the North. It sometimes occurs with white fruit. 



2. VACCIJVI1JM, L. Cranberry. Blueberry. Bilberry. 



Corolla bell-shaped, urn-shaped, or cylindrical ; the limb 4 - 5-cleft, revolute. 

 Stamens 8 or 10 : anthers sometimes 2-awned on the back ; the cells separate 

 and prolonged into a tube, opening by a hole at the apex. Berry 4- 5-celled, 

 many-seeded, or sometimes 8-10-celled by a false partition stretching from the 

 back of each cell to the placenta. — Shrubs with solitary, clustered, or racemed 

 flowers : the corolla white or reddish. (An ancient Latin name, of obscure 

 derivation.) 



