HUCKLEBERRIES AND BLUEBERRIES. 27 



berries are good size, sour, but of good flavor. Gray that the 

 bright red berries are rather dry and hardly edible. 



9. Vaccinium Pennsylvanicum, Lam., Diet., 1, 72 ; Michx., Fl., 



i, 223; Hook., Bot. Mag., t. 

 3434; Gray, Man., ed. 1, 261, 

 Syn. Fl., 2, 1, 22. 



Synonyme, Vaccinium myrtilloides, Michx., I. c. 



" " tenellum, Pursh, Fl., 1, 288, not Ait. ; 



Bigel., Fl. Host., 150. 

 var. angustifolium, Gray, I. c. 

 " V. angustifolium. Ait., Kew., ed. 2, ii, 356. 



" V. salicinum, Aschers. in Flora, 1860, 319, not 



Cham. 



Dry hills and woods. Newfoundland to Saskatchewan and 

 southward to New Jersey and Illinois ; commoner northward ; 

 the variety, Labrador and Hudson's Bay, Newfoundland and 

 Alpine regions of the White Mountains of New Hampshire. 



This furnishes the larger part of the blueberries of our markets. 

 The berries are described by Pursh as large, bluish black, 

 ■extremely sweet and agreeable to eat. He says the mountains of 

 Pennsylvania produce an immense variety of this species in size 

 and shape of the fruit, leaves, and flowers. This is the early Blue- 

 berry of New England, and immense quantities are gathered for 

 market. In my estimation the fruit ranks second only to V. 

 corymbosum. The plant is low growing, extremely prolific, and 

 flourishes best on dry hills and pastures. When mown down the 

 shoots spring up very straight and without side branches, the 

 upper third one mass of bloom, and the berries can thus be 

 stripped off by handfuls. This is one of the species that are 

 deserving attempts at culture or protected culture. 



It was called Low Blueberry by Bigelow in 1824 and 1840, and 

 Emerson, 1875 ; Dwarf Blue Huckleberry and Sugar Huckleberry 

 by Torrey in 1843 ; Black-blue Whortleberry by Eaton in 1840 ; 

 Dwarf Blueberry by Gray in 1867, Fuller, 1867, Robinson, 1880, 

 Dame and Collins, 1888 ; Common Low Blueberry b}' Provancher, 

 1862, and Wood, 1875. 



Pursh gives the name of Bluets for the variet}' angustifolium. 



