184 KEY AND FLORA 



^\'arty green branches. Leaves oblong or oblong-lanceolate, sharply- 

 serrate, with little bristle-pointed teeth, both sides smooth and shin- 

 ing except for down occasionally on the midrib and veins below, 

 pointed at both ends. Flowers few in a cluster, longer than their 

 minute pedicels. Corolla oblong, bell-shaped, a little narrowed at 

 the throat, white or pinkish. Berry blue, with much bloom, ripening 

 earlier than the other eatable species, sweeter than No. 5 but not so 

 high-flavored. In dry or sandy soil, especially N. 



4. V. vacillans Kalm. Late Low Blueberry. A low, stiff, smooth 

 shrub, 1-3 ft. high ; branches yellowish -green. Leaves obovate or oval, 

 pale or dull green, smooth beneath, entire or nearly so. Flowers green- 

 ish-yellow or somewhat pink. Berries late-ripening, blue, with some 

 bloom, sweet. Dry, especially sandy, soil. 



5. V. corymbosum L, High-Bush Blueberry. An erect shrub, 

 6-12 ft. high; branches stiff, young twigs minutely warty. Leaves 

 deciduous, oval to ovate-lanceolate, acute, margins bristly, serrulate, 

 smooth or downy, short-petioled. Racemes numerous, appearing with 

 or before the leaves. Bracts oval or oblong, deciduous. Flowers white 

 or pink. Corolla almost as long as the pedicel, cylindrical. Berry 

 globose, blue or black, flavor slightly acid, pleasant. Common in 

 woods and thickets. Whole plant extremely variable.* 



6. V. macrocarpon Ait. Cranberry. Stems creeping, thread-like, 

 1-3 ft. or more in length, the branches not quite erect, sometimes 

 8 in. high. Leaves usually oval or oblong, obtuse, thickish, ever- 

 green, the younger ones with the margins somewhat rolled under. 

 Flowers nodding. Petals strongly reflexed, deep rose-red inside at 

 the base, pale pinkish or almost white at the tips. Stamens with 

 the filaments hardly ^ as long as the anthers. Fruit red or reddish- 

 purple, ellipsoidal or nearly globose, very acid, much valued for sauce, 

 pies, and jellies. Common in peat bogs and wet meadows N. 



77. PRIMULACE^. Primrose Family 

 Herbs, with simple leaves, often most or all of them basaL 

 Flowers bisexual and actinomorphic, generally sympetalous. 

 Stamens commonly 5, inserted on the corolla, opposite its 

 lobes. Pistil consisting of a single stigma and style and a 

 (generally free) 1-celled ovary, with a free central placenta. 



A 



Leaves all basal. 



(a) Segments of corolla not reflexed, throat open. Stamens in- 

 cluded. Primula, I 



