658 PLANT LIFE OF ALABAMA. 



black, dry, insipid. Clay County, near Pulpit Rock, 2,200 feet. On these summits a 

 straggling shrub, scarcely over 3 or 4 feet high, berries ripening in December (\viu- 

 terberry). In the pine barrens of the Coast Pine belt a tree from 10 to 30 feet high 

 and 3 to 10 inches iu diameter. 



Economic uses: Of some value for the fine-grained wood. 



Type locality : " This grows naturally in Carolina." 



Herb. Geol. Surv. Herb. Mohr. 



Vaccinium stamineum L. Sp. PI. 1 : 350. 1753. 



DEEKBERRY. SQUAW HUCKLEBERRY. 



Ell. Sk. 1 : 496. Gray, Man. ed. 6, 312. Chap. Fl. 259. Gray, Syn. F1.N. A. 2, pt. 1 : 21. 



Carolinian and Louisiauian areas. Ontario; New England along the coast to 

 Virginia; western Ohio to Missouri and Arkansas, south to Florida and Texas. 



ALABAMA: Over the State. In dry or damp barren soil, open woods, borders of 

 thickets. Flowers white, A pril ; fruit ripe in July and August, greenish, acerb. 

 Not rare. One to 2 feet high, smoothish or pubescent. 



In the pine barrens about Mobile a low form, scarcely over inches high, with 

 spreading branches and silky tomentose ciliate leaves, is not rare. 



Type locality : " Hab. in America septentrionali." 



Herb. Geol. Surv. Herb. Mohr. 



Vaccinium melanocarpum. SOUTHERN GOOSEBERRY. 



Vaccinium stamineum melanocarpum Mohr, Bull. Torr. Club, 24 :25. 1897. 



Shrub erect, 2 to 4 feet high; leaves oblong-lanceolate, 2 to 4 inches long, to 1 

 inch wide, like the branchlets smoothish or slightly pubescent; racemes elongated, 

 2 to 2 inches long, loose, 4 to 8 flowered; pedicels slender, drooping, from the axils 

 of persistent ovate-oblong bracts; berries fully f inch in diameter, shining-black, 

 with a juicy pulp, palatable, of a somewhat aromatic flavor. The shrub bending 

 under the load of its berries gracefully suspended on the slender racemes presents a 

 pretty sight. PLATE VII. 



Carolinian area. Southwestern Missouri (Ozark Hills). 



ALABAMA: Tennessee Valley. Mountain region. Lower hills. Woods on rocky 

 or gravelly soil. Lauderdale County, barrens. Dekalb County, Lookout Mountain, 

 1,000 to 1,800 feet. St. Clair County, Coosa Hills, copiously near Springville. Lee 

 County, Auburn {Baker <f- Earle, 316). 



Although resembling larger-leaved and stouter forms of V. stamineum, this shrub, 

 confined to the mountain region, appears sufficiently distinct to be regarded as a 

 proper species. The erect habit of growth, the numerous branches always erect, 

 the erect-spreading large leaves, the strictly racemose inflorescence, the slender ped- 

 icels proceeding mostly singly from the oblong to ovate to linear bracts, and the 

 large juicy fruit of a dark plum-purple color, ripening much earlier than in the 

 allied species, distinguish it at once from the same. 



Specimens collected by Lettenuan in 1875 in southwestern Missouri, near Iron 

 Mountain, and preserved in the Engelrnann herbarium belong here. The collector 

 was struck by 1 the peculiar aspect of this shrub. After describing it in a letter to 

 Dr. Engelmann as a plant 3 to 5 feet high, with the berries, some pyriform, some, 

 globose, of dark purple, and a pleasant flavor when ripe, while unripe or partially 

 ripe, bitter, he adds enthusiastically: "I would wish you could see the bushes 

 freighted with their purple, and, I might add, to my taste, delicious fruit." 



Economic uses: The berries are eagerly consumed by man and beast. 



Type locality: "Mountain region" of Alabama. More specifically, St. Clair 

 County, near Ashville, July, 1880. 



Herb. Geol. Surv. Herb. Mohr. 



Vaccinium melanocarpum candicans var. nov. 



To all appearance of lower stature; leaves smaller than in the typo, the lower 

 surface covered with a close, line, almost milk- white tomentum. 



ALABAMA: Lee County, Auburn (Baker $- Earle}, August, 1897. 



Herb. Geol. Surv. Herb. Mohr. 



Vaccinium melanocarpum sericeum var. nov. 



Branchlets, leaves, and unripe fruit with a soft, silky, appressed pubescence; 

 leaves ample; dark green. 



ALABAMA: With the type. Rocky wooded hills near Springville, St. Clair 

 County, May 28, 1892. 



Herb. Geol. Surv. Herb. Mohr. 



