ERICACEAE. (HEATH FAMILY.) 289 



oblon"-, mucronate, green both sides, rather thick and shining when old ; racemes 

 elongated ; bracts leaf-like, oval, persistent, as long as the pedicels ; ovary bristly or 

 glandular i corolla bell-shaped ; fruit black (insipid). — Var. hiktella has the 

 young branchlete, racemes, and often the leaves hairy. — Sandy low soil, Maine 

 to Penn. and Virginia, near the coast, and southward. June. 



3. G. frond6sa, Torr. & Gr. (Blue Tangle. Dangleberry.) Smooth 

 (3° -6° high); branches slender and divergent; leaves obovate-oblong, blunt, 

 pale, glaucous beneath; racemes slender, loose; bracts oblong or linear, deciduous, 

 shorter than the slender drooping pedicels ; corolla globular-bell-shaped ; fruit dark 

 blue with a white bloom (sweet and edible). — Low copses, coast of New Eng- 

 land to Kentucky, and southward. May, June. 



4. G. l'esinbsa, Torr. & Gr. (Black Huckleberry.) Much branched, 

 rigid, slightly pubescent when young (l°-3° high) ; leaves oval, oblong-ovate, or 

 oblong, thickly clothed and at first clammy, as well as the flowers, with shining res- 

 inous globules ; racemes short, clustered, one-sided ; pedicels about the length of 

 the flowers ; bracts and bractlets (reddish) small and deciduous; corolla ovoid-coni- 

 cal, or at length cylindrical with an open mouth ; fruit black, without bloom 

 (pleasant, very rarely white). — Woodlands and swamps: common (except 

 southwestward towards the Mississippi). May, June. — The common Huckle- 

 berry of the North. 



2. VACCINIUM, L. Cranberry. Blueberry. Bilberry. 



Corolla various in shape; the limb 4-5-cleft, revolute. Stamens 8 or 10: 

 anthers sometimes 2-awned on the back; the cells separate and prolonged up- 

 wards into a tube, opening by a hole at the apex. Berry 4 - 5-celled, many-seeded, 

 or sometimes 8-10-celled by a false partition stretching from the back of each 

 cell to the placenta. — Shrubs with solitary, clustered, or racemed flowers : the 

 corolla white or reddish. (Ancient Latin name, of obscure derivation.) 

 § 1. OXYCOCCUS, Tourn. Ovary 4-celled: corolla 4-parted, the long narrow 

 divisions revolute : anthers 8, awnless, tapering above into very long tubes : pedi- 

 cels slender. 

 * Stems very slender, creeping or trailing: leaves small, entire, ivhitened beneath, ever- 

 green : pedicels erect, with the pale rose<olored flower nodding on their summit : 

 corolla deeply 4-parted: berries red, acid. 



1. V. Oxycoccus, L. (Small Cranberry.) Stems very slender (4' - 

 9' long) ; leaves ovate, acute, with strongly revolute margins (2" -3" long) ; pedicels 

 1-4, terminal ; filaments more than half the length of the anthers. (Oxycoccus 

 vulgaris, Pursh.) — Peat-bogs, New England and Pennsylvania to Wisconsin, 

 and northward. June. — Berry 3" -4" broad, often speckled with white when 

 young: seldom gathered for the market. (Eu.) 



2. V. macrocarpon, Ait. (Large or American Cranberry.) Stems 

 elongated (l°-3° long), the flowering branches ascending; leaves oblong, obtuse, 

 glaucous underneath, less revolute (4" -6" long); pedicels several, becoming 

 lateral ; filaments scarcely one third the length of the anthers. (Oxycoccus 

 macroca'rpus, Pers.) — Peat-bogs, Virginia to Wisconsin, and everywhere north- 

 ward, but scarcely westward. June. — Berry £' - 1' long. 



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