ERICACEAE (hEATH FAMILY) 639 



* * Flowers not articulated with the pedicel ; anthers exserted. 

 •*- Leaves and branchlets pubescent. 

 V. V. stamineum L. (Deerberry, Squaw Huckleberry.) Diffusely 

 branched, 3-9 dm. high, somewhat pubescent; leaves ovate or oval pale 

 glaucous or whitish underneath; calyx glabrous or essentially so; ajroUa 

 greenish-white or purplish; anthers much exserted; berries greenish or yellowish 

 globular or pear-shaped, large, few-seeded, tart. (Polycodium Greene ; P. 

 candicans Small.) — Dry woods and plains, Mass. to Out., and southw. 



3. V. melanocarpum Mohr. (Southern Gooseberry.) Similar, the young 

 parts minutely white-pubescent; calyx white-tomentose ; fruit dark purple 

 lustrous, palatable. (^Folycodium Small.) — Upland woods, N. C. to Mo., and 

 southw. 



+- 1- Leaves and branchlets glabrous. 



4. V. negl^ctura (Small) Fernald. Glabrous essentially throughout ; leaves 

 thin, at most ciliolate, becoming slightly coriaceous, oblong-lanceolate to narrowly 

 obovate, short-acuminate, green to slightly glaucous beneath ; calyx glabrous ; 

 corolla white or pink ; fruit greenish or yellowish, hardly edible. (Polycodium 

 Small.) — Dry woods, Va. to Kan., and southw. 



§ 2. CYAN0C6CCUS Gray. (Blueberries.) Corolla cylindraceous to cam- 

 panulate, b-toothed ; filaments hairy; anthers included, awnless ; berry 

 edible, mostly blue or black, completely or incompletely 10-celled; flowers in 

 fascicles or short racemes, short-pediceled, appearing from large scaly buds 

 with or before the leaves. 



'^Leaves coriaceous, evergreen; bracts firm, tardily deciduous. 



5. V. Myrsinites Lam. (Evergreen B.) Low (2-6 dm. high), with branches 

 puberulent when young ; leaves from obovate to oblong-lanceolate or spatulate, 

 1-3 cm. long, smooth and shining above, puberulent or glabrate and strongly 

 veiny beneath, entire or denticulate ; calyx with acute teeth ; corolla cylindra- 

 ceous, 6-8 mm. long; fruit globose, blue-black. — Sandy barrens, Va. to Fla. 

 and La. 



* * Leaves deciduous ; bracts scaly, early deciduous. 

 •1- Corolla cylindraceous when developed. 



6. V. virgatum Ait. Low, more or less pubescent ; leaves ovate-oblong to 

 cuneate-lanceolate, usually acute and minutely serrulate, thinnish, shining at 

 least above, in maturity 2.5-5 cm. long ; flower-clusters sometimes virgate on 

 naked branches ; corolla rose-color, 7-10 mm. long ; berry black. — In swamps 

 and pine barrens, Staten I. and N. J. (according to Mackenzie) to Fla., etc. 



Var. tenellum (Ait.) Gray. Lower; the mostly small (1-3 cm. long) leaves 

 and smaller (6-8 mm. long) nearly white flowers in shorter or closer clusters.*— 

 Va. to 111. , Md. , and southw. 



•V- •*- Corolla globose-urceolate to ellipsoid. 



+-^ Low shrubs, mostly less than 1 m. high. 



7. V. pennsylvanicum Lam. (Low Swket B., Early Sweet B.) Dwarf 

 (2-6 dm. high); the green warty stems and branches glabrous (or pubescent 

 northward) ; leaves lanceolate or oblong, distinctly setndate with bristle-pointed 

 teeth (rarely entire), bright green, smooth and shining both sides (or some- 

 times hairy on the midrib beneath), in maturity 2-3.5 cm. long, 8-15 mm. 

 broad; corolla short (6-7 mm. long), cylindric-bell-shaped ; berries bluish- 

 black and glaucous, varying to black or red, either with or without a bloom, 

 and rarely dull white (forma leucocArpum Deane). — Dry hills, barrens, etc., 

 Nfd., to Sask., s. to Va., 111., and Wise. — The lowest and earliest ripened of 

 the blueberries. Var. angustifC)lium (Ait.) Gray. A dwarfer higli-mountain 

 or northern form, with narrower lanceolate leaves, 7-20 mm. long. 3-7 mm. 

 broad. — Ct. (Graves) ; mts. of N, Y. and N. E. to Nfd., ami far northw. 



Var, nigrum Wood. (Low Black B.) Leaves tirmer, blue-green, glaucous 



