612 WILD AND UNCLASSIFIED FRUITS. 



inordinately fond of them and appear to know exactly the day 

 they become just ripe, and on that day they will completely 

 strip even a large bunch of bushes of every perfect berry. If 

 they are wanted to eat, therefore, they must be protected with 

 netting. 

 Until within a few years, there has been no certainty of 



FIG. 810. Eleagnus longipes. 



obtaining this plant from the nurserymen, but frequently 

 E. argentea or E. umbellatus have been substituted for it, both 

 of which, while ornamental shrubs and producing berries, are 

 inferior in the latter respect to E. longipes. 



HUCKLEBERRIES. 



The so-called Huckleberries belong to the Heath family, and 

 to the two genera Gaylussacia and Vaccinium. They are all 

 found growing wild from Maine to the Mississippi and south 

 to the Gulf. The bushes vary greatly in size, from six inches 

 to ten feet or more, and the fruit differs as greatly, from juicy 

 and sweet to dry and insipid. Immense tracts, especially of 

 G. resinosa, the common black huckleberry of our markets, 



