HUCKLEBERRY FAMILY 



Leaves. Alternate, simple, oblong or oval, one to three 

 inches long, wedge-shaped at base, entire, acute at apex. They 

 come out of the bud pale green or purplish, downy ; when full 

 grown are dark green, glabrous and shining above, paler and 

 downy beneath. Autumnal tint brilliant scarlet and orange. 

 Petiole short. 



Flowers. May, June. White or pale pink bells, borne in 

 short pendent or nodding racemes, which appear on almost leaf- 

 less branches of last year's wood. Bracts deciduous. 



Calyx. Adnate to the ovary ; five-lobed. 



Corolla. White or pinkish, cylindric or slightly constricted at 

 the throat, one-fourth to one-half an inch long, five-toothed. 



Stamens. Ten, anthers upwardly prolonged into tubes; cells 

 opening by terminal pores. 



Pistil. Ovary inferior, ovules several, stigma small. 



Fruit. Berry one-fourth to one-third an inch in diameter, 

 variable in color but typically blue with a bloom; pleasantly 

 acid. July, August. 



This Blueberry is described by Gray in three vari- 

 eties, two of which Britton & Brown regard as suffi- 

 ciently distinct to be considered species. These are 

 Vaccinium corymbosum atrococcum, which differs from 

 the type, principally, in more downy leaves, smaller 

 and rounder flowers and berries black without bloom ; 

 and Vaccinium corymbosum pallidum which differs in 

 having paler serrulate leaves, whitish or glaucous be- 

 neath. This form is common in the Alleghanies and 

 has a southern habitat. 



Mr. Jackson Dawson of the Arnold Arboretum 

 writes of this Blueberry as follows : 



''The High Bush Blueberry, Vaccinium corymbosum^ 

 forms handsome clumps of shrubbery from four to ten 

 feet high in deep swamps and moist woods, but sel- 

 dom reaches more than four feet in open pastures. 



330 



