ERICACEAE. (HEATH FAMILY.) 247 



SUBORDER I. VACCIWI^J^E. THE WHORTLEBERKY FAMILY. 



1. GAYtUSSACIA, H. B. K. HDCKLEBEBHT. 



Corolla tubular, ovoid, or bell-shaped ; the border 5-cleft. Stamens 10 : an- 

 thers awnless ; the cells tapering upward into more or less of a tube, opening 

 by a chink at the end. Fruit a berry-like drupe containing 10 seed-like nutlets. 

 Branching shrubs, with the aspect of Vaccinium, commonly sprinkled with 

 resinous dots ; the flowers (white tinged with purple or red) in lateral and bracted 

 racemes. (Named for the distinguished chemist, Gay-Lussac.) 

 * Leaves thick and evergreen, not resinous-dotted. 



1. O. bracliyccra, Gray. (BOX-LEAVED HUCKLEBEBBY.) Very 

 smooth (1 high) ; leaves oval, finely crenate-toothed ; racemes short and nearly 

 sessile; pedicels very short ; corolla cylindrical-bell-shaped. Dry woods, Per- 

 ry County, Penn., near Bloomfield (Prof. Baird), and mountains of Virginia. 

 May. Leaves in shape and aspect like those of the Box. 



# # Leaves deciduous, entire, sprinkled more or less with resinous or waxy atoms. 



2. O. duuidsa, Torr. & Gr. (DWABP HUCKLEBEBBY.) Somewhat hairy 

 and glandular, low (1 high from a creeping base), bushy; leaves obovate-ob- 

 iong, mucronate, green both sides, rather thick and shining when old ; racemes 

 elongated ; bracts leaf-like, oval, persistent, as long as the pedicels ; ovary bristly or 

 glandular; corolla bell-shaped ; fruit black (insipid). Var. HIBTELLA has the 

 young branchlets, racemes, and often the leaves hair}'. Sandy low soil, Maine 

 to Virginia, near the coast, and southward. June. 



3. G. frondosa, Ton-. & Gr. (BLUE TANGLE. DANGLEBEBBY.) 

 Smooth (3 -6 high); branches slender and divergent; leaves obovate-oblong, 

 blunt, pale, glaucous beneath ; racemes slender, loose ; bracts oblong or linear, decid- 

 uous, shorter than the slender drooping pedicels ; corolla globular-bell-shaped ; fruit 

 dark blue with a white bloom (sweet and edible). Low copses, coast of New 

 England to Kentucky, and southward. May, June. 



4. G. resinosa, Torr. & Gr. (BLACK HUCKLEBEBEY.) Much branched, 

 rigid, slightly pubescent when young (l-3 high) ; leaves oval, oblong-ovate, or 

 oblong, thickly clothed and at first clammy, as well as the flowers, with shining 

 resinous globules ; racemes short, clustered, one-sided ; pedicels about the length 

 of the flowers; bracts and bractlets (reddish) small and deciduous; corolla ovoid- 

 conical, or at length cylindrical with an open mouth ; fruit black, without bloom 

 (pleasant). Woodlands and swamps ; common. May, June. The common 

 Huckleberry of the North. It is said sometimes to occur with white fruit. 



2. VACCIHTIUM, L. CBANBEBBY. BLUEBEBBY. BILBEBBY. 



Corolla bell-shaped, urn-shaped, or cylindrical; the limb 4 -5-cleft, revolute. 

 Stamens 8 or 10 : anthers sometimes 2-awned on the back ; the cells separate 

 and prolonged into a tube, opening by a hole at the apex. Berry 4 - 5-celled, 

 many-seeded, or sometimes 8-10-celled by a false partition stretchirg from the 

 back of each cell to the placenta. Shrubs with solitary, clustered, >r racemed 

 flowers : the corolla white or reddish. (An ancient Latin name, of obscure 

 derivation.) 



