Dicotyledones. 87 



I. EPIGAEA. Ground Laurel or Trailing Arbutus. 

 (Gr., epi) upon; ge, the earth. From the trailing habit.) 



Prostrate, more or less hairy, branching shrubs, with evergreen 

 leaves. Flowers clustered at the end of the branches, white or pink, 

 fragrant. Sepals 5, oblong. Corolla salver-formed, mostly 5-lobed. 

 Stamens 10, attached to the base of the corolla and about as long as 

 its tube. Ovary ovoid, hirsute. Style columnar; stigma 5-lobed. 



i. Epigaea repens, L. (L., repens, trailing.) TRAILING ARBUTUS. MAY- 

 FLOWER. GROUND LAUREL. Leaves oval, oblong-ovate, or nearly orbicular, 

 thick. Branches 6 to 15 inches long. Flowers appearing very early in the spring, 

 exhaling a spicy fragrance. In sandy woods or rocky soil, especially under ever- 

 green trees. 



n. GAYLUSSACIA. Tangleberry or Huckleberry. 



(Named for Gay-Lussac, chemist.) 



Shrubs, with alternate, entire leaves, sometimes serrated. Flowers 

 in lateral, bracted racemes, small and white or pink. Corolla tube urn- 

 shaped or campanulate, with 5-lobed limb. Calyx tube short, the limb 

 with 5 short lobes or teeth. Stamens 10, included. Anthers tapering 

 upward and opening at the summit. Ovary lo-celled. Fruit a berrylike 

 drupe with 10 seedlike nutlets. 



1. Gaylussacia frondosa, T. & G. (L., frondosus, leafy.) BLUE TANGLE or 

 TANGLEBERRY. Erect shrubs, 2 to 4 feet high. Leaves obovate-oblong, blunt, 

 under surface pale and glaucous, and resinous. Flowers in loose racemes, greenish 

 pink, round-campanulate. Fruit globose, dark blue, with a bloom, sweet and 

 edible. In moist woods and thickets. 



2. Gaylussacia resinosa, T. & G. (L., resinosus, full of resin or gum.) BLACK 

 or HIGH-BUSH HUCKLEBERRY. Shrub, i to 3 feet high. Branches numerous, 

 erect or ascending, and rigid, somewhat pubescent. Leaves mostly oval or 

 oblong-ovate, when young thickly covered with resinous globules, green on both 

 sides. Inflorescence a i-sided raceme. Bracts shorter than the pedicels and 

 deciduous. Fruit black, without bloom, sweet. Rocky woods and thickets, and 

 in swamps. 



m. VACCINIUM. Blueberry, Bilberry, Whortleberry, or Cranberry. 



(The old Latin name.) 



Shrubs, with alternate and often coriaceous leaves. Flowers small, 

 white, pink, or red, urn-shaped or campanulate, in terminal or lateral 

 racemes, or sometimes solitary. Calyx tube globose and adnate to the 

 ovary, the persistent limb 4~5-toothed or lobed. Stamens 8-10, the 



