158 Heath (Ericacece) 



The "huckleberry pasture" is an important part of 

 many a New England farm, and the name is a well 

 remembered one in the memory of many a far wanderer 

 from his early home. Those who know the stout and 

 thickly set bushes, and who know also the ideal Christian 

 character of many of the New England settlers, can 

 appreciate the comment of an old lady (quoted, by 

 Ralph Waldo Emerson), who, remembering her godly 

 ancestors, said of them "that they had to hold on hard 

 by the huckleberry bushes to hinder themselves from 

 being translated." 



A peculiar old and shorter name for huckleberries is 

 " hurts." 



" Cape Cod is only a headland of high hills overgrowne 

 with shrubby pines, hurts, and such trash, but an excel- 

 lent harbour of all weathers." Capt. JOHN SMITH, 

 Work II. 



Dwarf Huckleberry. G. dumbsa (Andr.), T. and G. 



flowers, each from the axil of a persistent bract, in some- 

 what lengthened clusters. Bracts, leaf-like, oval, as 

 long as the flower-stem, and persistent. Corolla, 

 bell-shape, with five prominent keel-like angles, 

 longer than the included stamen and style. Seed- 

 case, set with hairs or glands. June. 



Leaves, about one and one third inches long, entire or 

 slightly fine-toothed, reverse egg-shape, blunt, bristle- 

 tipped. Leaves, branchlets, and flower-stems sprinkled 

 with small hairs and glands. 



Fruit, black, one third to one half inch in diameter, rather 

 insipid. August. 



