HUCKLEBERRY FAMILY 



LOW BLUEBERRY. BLUE HUCKLEBERRY 



Vaccinium -vacillans. 



A stiff shrub, six inches to four feet high, found in dry, sandy 

 soil. Ranges from New Hampshire to North Carolina and west 

 to Michigan. 



Stems. Branchlets and smaller spray red or pink and con- 

 trasting in color with the yellowish green or pale gray of the twigs 

 and branches. Winter buds red. 



Leaves. Obovate, oval or broadly oblong, one to two and 

 one-half inches long, narrowed or rounded at base, entire or 

 sparingly or minutely serrulate, acute or acuminate, with a small 

 bristle at apex. They come out of the bud revolute, dull green 

 tinged with red, which color they remain for some time ; when 

 full grown are dull light green, glabrous above, pale or glaucous 

 beneath. Autumnal tint scarlet and crimson. 



Flowers. May, June. Pink or greenish white bells about 

 one-fourth of an inch long, borne in racemose clusters ; appear 

 before the leaves are half-grown. 



Calyx. Tube adnate to the ovary, five-toothed. 



Corolla. Pink or white, oblong-cylindric, somewhat con- 

 stricted at the throat. 



Stamens. Ten. filaments slightly hairy, anthers extending 

 into long tubes ; cells opening by terminal pores. 



Pistil. Ovary inferior ; ovules several. 



Fruit. Globular berry, blue with a bloom, sweet, delicious 

 flavor. Ripening somewhat later than Vaccinium pennsylvani- 

 cum. July to September. A variety with white fruit is known. 



Mr. Jackson Dawson of the Arnold Arboretum de- 

 scribes this Blueberry as follows : 



" The Low Blueberry, Vaccinium vacillans, is a shrub 

 from one to three feet high, with a yellowish green 

 stem and glaucous leaves, usually growing on high 

 rocky ground and at the edge of woods. It bears an 

 abundance of large sweet berries which are chiefly 



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