502 Select Plants for Industrial Culture and 



Vacciniuxn praestans, Kudolphi. 



Kamtschatka. A minute plant, but with large delicious fruits. 

 It might perhaps easilj be disseminated on any alpine mountains. 



Vaccinium reticulatum, Smith. 



Hawaia, at elevations from 4,000 to 8,000 feet. A dwarf shrub. 

 Berries somewhat astringent, but of pleasant taste [Dr. Hillebrand]. 

 Belated to Y. cereum (Forster) from the Tahiti-Mountains. 



Vaccinium uliginosum, Linne. 



British Bog-Bilberry. Europe, Northern and Middle Asia, 

 North-America. A deciduous bush, with blackish berries, similar 

 to those of V. Myrtillus, but hardly of equal excellence. Wild to 

 lat. 78 north in Greenland 



Vacciniam vacillans, Solander. 



Eastern North-America, in sandy forest-lands. A deciduous 

 small bush, with its blue berries coming later into season than V. 

 Pennsylvanicum [Dr. A. Gray]. 



Vaccinium Vitis Zdeea, Linne. 



Europe, Northern and Middle Asia, North- America. Extends in 

 Greenland to 76 N. L. [Nathorst] ; therefore fit for subglacier- 

 regions. A dwarf shrub with evergreen leaves. The purplish-red 

 berries are sought for jellies and other preserves. It is as yet 

 impossible to say, how many other species of Yacciiiium produce 

 good-sized and well-flavored fruits. The genus ranges also m 

 tropical species from Continental Asia to the Indian Archipelagus, 

 and has a wide extension likewise in South-America, occupying in 

 hot countries higher mountain-regions ; but few reliable notes on 

 the tropical species are extant as far as their fruits are concerned. 

 No attempts seem as yet to have been made, to improve the fruits 

 of any Vaccinium by hybridizing nearly allied species under horti- 

 cultural care. "We here would like to see any one of the kinds, 

 alluded to in these pages, naturalised on the Australian Alps. 



Vahea florida , F. v. Mueller. (Landolphia florida, Bentham.) 



West- Africa, up to 2,500 feet. This may prove hardy in mild 

 extra-tropic regions. Dr. Welwitsch describes the Aboh-fruit of this 

 species as sweet and acidulous, but was not less gratified with the 

 beauty and marvellous abundance of its large snow-white and 

 jasmin-scented flowers. V. florida also yields much caoutchouc, 

 like V. Heudelotii (Landolphia Heudelotii, D.C) from the Senegal- 

 regions. The genus Yahea was fully established by Lamarck as 

 early as 1791. The excellent work on the caoutchoucs of commerce, 

 by James Collins, may be consulted as regards the sources of 

 various kinds of India-rubbers. Prof. Wiesner (Rohstoffe des 

 Pflanzenreichs, 1873) enumerates at p. 154-156 the various plants, 

 then known to yield caoutchouc, giving also a chemical account of 

 these substances. 



