GENUS i. 



HUCKLEBERRY FAMILY. 



6 95 



inserted at the base of the corolla; filaments usually flattened, mostly short; 

 anthers dorsally attached, 2-celled, the connective entire or 2-awned. Ovary 

 inferior, 2-io-celled, crowned by the epigynous disk; style filiform; stigma simple, 

 or minutely 4-5-dentate; ovules solitary, or several in each cavity, anatropous. 

 Fruit a berry or drupe in our genera, globose ; cells i-several-seeded, or the drupe 

 containing several nutlets. Seeds compressed; testa bony; endosperm fleshy; 

 embryo central ; radicle near the hilum. 



About 20 genera and 300 species of wide geographic distribution. 



Ovary lo-celled ; fruit a berry-like drupe with 10 i -seeded nutlets. 

 Ovary 4-5-celled ; fruit a many-seeded berry. 

 Corolla open-campanulate, 4-s-lobed. 



Flowers 4-parted ; leaves small, coriaceous, persistent ; low shrub. 

 Flowers 5-parted ; leaves large, thin, deciduous ; tall shrubs. 

 Flower not jointed with its pedicel ; anthers exserted. 

 Flower jointed with its pedicel ; anthers included; berry black. 

 Corolla cylindric, subglobose or urceolate. 



Erect shrubs ; ovary entirely inferior ; berries normally not white. 

 Low trailing shrub ; ovary half inferior ; berry snow-white. 

 Corolla deeply 4-cleft or 4-divided, the lobes reflexed. 



1. Gaylussacia. 



2. Vitis-Idaea. 



3. Polycodium. 



4. Batodendron. 



5. Vaccinium. 



6. Chiogenes. 



7. Oxycoccus. 



i. GAYLUSSACIA H.B.K. Nov. Gen. 3 : 275. pi. 257. 1819. 



[?ADNARIA Raf. Fl. Ludov. 56. 1817] 

 [DECAMERIUM Nutt. Trans. Am. Phil. Soc. II. 8: 259. 1843.] 



Branching shrubs, with alternate entire or serrate leaves, and small white or pink flowers 

 in lateral bracted racemes. Pedicels mostly 2-bracteolate. Calyx-tube short, obconic, or 

 turbinate, the limb 5-lobed or 5-toothed, persistent. Corolla urn-shaped, or tubular-campanu- 

 late, the tube terete or 5-angled, the limb 5-lobed, the lobes erect or recurved. Stamens 10, 

 equal, usually included; filaments short and distinct; anther-sacs tapering upward into tubes, 

 awnless, opening by terminal pores or chinks. Fruit a berry-like drupe with 10 seed-like 

 nutlets, each containing a single seed. [Named for the celebrated chemist, Gay-Lussac.] 



About 40 American species. Besides the following, another occurs in the southern Alleghenies. 

 Type species : Gaylussacia buxifolia H.B.K. 



1. G. frondosa. 



2. G. baccata. 



3. G. dumosa. 



4. G. brachycera. 



Leaves pale and glaucous beneath, resinous ; fruit blue with a bloom. 

 Leaves green both sides, resinous ; fruit black, or sometimes blue. 



Bracts small, deciduous, mostly shorter than the pedicels. 



Bracts oval, large, persistent, longer than the pedicels. 

 Leaves thick, evergreen, serrate, not resinous ; bracts scale-like. 



i. Gaylussacia frondosa (L.) T. & G. Blue 



Tangle. Tangleberry. Dangleberry. 



Huckleberry. Fig. 3252. 



Vaccinium frondosum L. Sp. PI. 351. 1753. 



G. frondosa T. & G. ; Torr. Fl. N. Y. i : 449. 1843. 



An erect shrub, 2-4 high, with numerous spread- 

 ing or ascending slender gray branches. Leaves 

 oval to obovate, obtuse or retuse, entire, ii'-2i' long 

 when mature, usually thin, the lower surface gla- 

 brous or pubescent, pale or glaucous, and sprinkled 

 with resinous globules, the upper surface green, usu- 

 ally glabrous; petioles about i" long; flowers few, 

 nodding, greenish pink in loose racemes; bracts 

 linear-oblong, shorter than the filiform mostly 

 2-bracteolate pedicels, deciduous ; corolla globose- 

 campanulate, ii" long; filaments glabrous, shorter 

 than the anthers ; fruit globose, dark blue with a 

 glaucous bloom, about 4" in diameter, sweet. 



In moist woods, New Hampshire to Virginia, Alabama, Ohio and Louisiana. Blue whortle- 

 berry. May-June. Fruit ripe July-Aug. 



Gaylussacia ursina (M. A. Curtis) T. & G., with acuminate leaves green on both sides and 

 black fruit, native of the southern Alleghanies, is erroneously recorded from Kentucky. 



