28 HOUGH'S AMERICAN WOODS. 



8-10-celled containing many compressed seeds with minute embryo surrounded with fleshy 

 albumen. 



The name is the classical Latin name of the European Bilberry. 



This genus consists of shrubs (some epiphytal) and a few small trees with slander 

 branchlets and many of its representatives with edible fruits. 



258. VACCINIUM ARBOREUM, NUTT. 

 SPARKLEBERRY. FARKLEBERRY. TREE HUCKLEBERRY. 



Ger., Baumartige Heidelbeere. Fr., Vaciet d'arbre. Sp., Arbol de 



Arandano. 



SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: Leaves deciduous northward but persistent southward, obovate 

 to oval, ^-2^ in. long, subsessile, cuneate at base, rounded or acute at apex, with entire 

 or obscurely denticulate and revolute margins, at maturity lustrous dark green above, 

 paler and glabrous or puberulous beneath, coriaceous. Flowers (March-May) white, in 

 leafy-bracted racemes, with slender pedicels % in. long; corolla campanulate with 5 acute 

 reflexed lobes ; stamens 10, with hairy filaments. Fruit ripe in October, subglobose, 14 in. 

 in diameter, shining black. 



A small tree, rarely more than 25 ft. (8 m.) in height, with top of spread- 

 ing, contorted branches and many fine branchlets. The trunk rarely exceeds 

 8 or 10 in. (0.27 m.) in diameter, is often crooked or leaning and is vested 

 in a thin brownish gray bark which exfoliates in elongated friable scales. 



HABITAT. From the coast region of North Carolina to southern Kansas 

 and southward throughout the Southern States generally, as far west as 

 eastern Texas, and ranging northward in the Mississippi valley to southern 

 Illinois. It inhabits preferably sandy, moist soil of bottomlands and the 

 banks of streams, and attains its greatest size and is most abundant in the 

 region of the coast ; in the interior and to the northward is more shrubby in 

 habit of growth. 



PHYSICAL PROPERTIES. Wood hoavy, hard, strong, of fine close grain 

 with many rather conspicuous medullary rays, and of a pinkish white color, 

 shading gradually into a light reddish brown heart. Specific Gravity, 

 .07610 ; Percentage of Ash, 0.39 ; Relative Approximate Fuel Value, 

 0.7580; Resistance to Longitudinal Pressure, 399; Resistance to Indenta- 

 tion, 279 ; Weight of a Cubic Foot in Pounds, 47.43. 



USES. A useful wood in turnery, for tool handles and similar small 

 articles of wooden ware. The fruit, though palatable, is little used, as it is 

 not as accessible as that of some of the more shrubby species, and is rather 

 inferior in quality. 



