(HEATH FAMILY.) 247 



SUBORDER I. VACCINI&ffi. THE WHORTLEBERRY FAMILY. 



1. OAYL.USSACIA, H. B. K. HUCKLEBERRY. 



Corolla tubular, ovoid, or bell-shaped ; the border 5-cleft. 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 bracted 

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

 * Leaves thick and evergreen, not resinous-dotted. 



1. O. brachycera, Gray. (BOX-LEAVED HUCKLEBERRY.) Very 

 smooth (1 high) ; leaves oval, finely crenate-toothed ; racemes short and nearly 

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

 ry County, Penn., near Bloomfield (Prof. Baird), and 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. O. tlllilldsa, Torr. & Gr. (DWARF HUCKLEBERRY.) Somewhat hairy 

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

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

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

 glandular; corolla bell-shaped ; fruit black (insipid). Var. HIRTELLA has the 

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

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



3. O. fronclosa, Torr. & Gr. (BLUE "TANGLE. DANGLEBERRY.) 

 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. resinosa, Torr. & Gr. (BLACK HUCKLEBERRY.) Much branched, 

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

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

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

 of the flowers; bracts and bractlets (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 is said sometimes to occur with white fruit. 



2. VACCINIUM, 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 strotchirg from the 

 back of each cell to the placenta. Shrubs with solitary, clustered, >r racemed 

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

 derivation.) 



