HUCKLEBERRY FAMILY 



DWARF BLUEBERRY. LOW-BUSH BLUEBERRY 



Vaccinium pcnnsylvanicum. 



A low bush, six inches to two feet high, found in dry, rocky, 

 or sandy soil and often fringing wet lands. Ranges from New- 

 foundland to southern New Jersey and westward to Illinois and 

 Michigan. 



Stems. Shoots green, branchlets a little angular, bark light 

 green, warty with whitish dots ; stems reddish purple. Winter 

 buds quite large, reddish purple. 



Leaves. Oblong or ovate-lanceolate, three -fourths to an inch 

 and a half long, acute at both ends, minutely serrate, rather thick 

 texture, terminating in a callous tip. They come out of the bud 

 revolute, deeply tinged with red, which color they retain for a 

 considerable time ; when full grown are glabrous and shining 

 above, smooth or slightly downy on the veins below ; finely and 

 markedly reticulate. Autumnal tint scarlet and crimson ; fall 

 early. 



Flowers. May, June. White bells, borne in few-flowered 

 racemes. Bracts reddish. 



Calyx. Adnate to ovary, five-toothed. 



Corolla. Oblong, bell-shaped, slightly contracted at the throat, 

 white or pinkish, five-toothed : teeth acute ; slightly reflexed. 



Stamens. Ten ; filaments short, hairy ; upwardly prolonged 

 into tubes ; cells opening by terminal pores. 



Pistil. Ovary inferior, ovules several ; style even with corolla. 



Fruit. Globular berry, one-fourth to three-eighths of an inch 

 in diameter, blue with a bloom ; very sweet. The earliest of the 

 blueberries. 



This lowest and earliest of the blueberries delights in a thin, sandy soil, 

 and carpets the ground in the openings in the pitch-pine woods with beds of 

 rich soft green, which in May and June are decked with a profusion of 

 beautiful flowers ; in July and August are loaded with delicious fruit, and in 

 October turn to deep scarlet and crimson. 



From its situation and exposure the berries ripen earlier than those of 

 any other species. They are soft and easily injured in bringing to market, 



and liable when in mass to speedy decay. 



GEORGE B. EMERSON. 



324 



