HUCKLEBERRY FAMILY 



The young branches are usually yellowish green, 

 turning to a light gray when old or much exposed, 

 while the bark on old stems becomes rough and peels 

 off in shreds. 



" The flowers are pretty, white bells, borne at the ex- 

 tremity of the branches of the previous year's growth. 

 They appear in May and early June, and the fruit is 

 ripe from August to late September. The latter is 

 variable in shape, size, flavor, and color. Of many 

 well marked varieties, one has large black fruit of a 

 pleasant acid which seems exactly the flavor to add to 

 a bowl of new milk. Another, a large one, has a deli- 

 cate sugary flavor. I chanced upon a bush one day 

 which was twelve feet high, loaded with berries of a 

 beautiful blue, rich, juicy variety and half an inch in 

 diameter, while some were even larger. In this 

 swamp ten or twelve good forms of fruit might have 

 been found and by careful selection and hybridization 

 there is no reason why the High Bush Blueberry 

 should not become an excellent and abundant fruit, as 

 it is more easily cultivated than any of the others. A 

 dwarf form of Vaccinium corymbosum which rarely 

 grows more than eighteen inches high has large, fine, 

 abundant fruit of a bluish black color." 



The High-bush Blueberry has many virtues, and by 

 no means the least is the gorgeous coloring that it 

 assumes in late October. Then it becomes indeed a 

 burning bush of the most brilliant scarlet and holds 

 its leaves late into November. It should be more 

 generally planted, for it is beautiful at all seasons, is 

 not difficult to transplant, and will grow in any good 

 garden soil. 



332 



