VACCINIACEAE 297 



Polycodium melanocarpum (Mohr) Small. (Including- two 

 varieties described by Mohr, one of which is treated as a 

 species by Small.) 



According to Dr. ]\Iohr this grows from two to four feet tall 

 and has shiny black berries which ripen earlier than those of P. 

 stauiincum and are very good to eat. 



lA. Lauderdale County (Mohr). 



2A. DeKalb County. (\'ar. sericeiiin, Mohr). 



3. St. Clair County. (Var. sericeum, Mohr). 



5. Lee County (Baker & Earle). (Var. caiidicaiis. Mohr). 



VACCINIUM, Linnaeus. BlubErriEs, etc. (Generally called 

 Huckleberries in the South.) 



All shrubs, and all but one of ours deciduous. They bloom 

 in spring, about the time the leaves unfold, and ripen their fruit in 

 early summer. All or nearly all have edible berries, of some com- 

 mercial importance, and some are cultivated for that reason, or for 

 ornament. They grow mostly in siliceous soils, and are common 

 throughout the state, except in the Tennessee Valley and the black 

 belt. 



Our species of this genus are not easy to distinguish without 

 having both flowers and fruit, and that condition is not easily ful- 

 filled when one is trying to cover a whole state in a few years. 

 For that reason I can add very little to what is said about them in 

 Mohr's Plant Life of Alabama, where ten species and varieties 

 of Vacciniuin proper are enuinerated. One or two more are cred- 

 ited to Alabama in Small's Flora of the Southeastern United 

 States, but four or five is about all that I have distinguished. 



Vaccinium Myrsinites, Lam. (V. nifiditiii, Andr. ?) (Including 

 the var. glanciun, which seems to differ only in having the 

 foliage glaucous, a variation which occurs in many other 

 plants, and does not seem to signify much.) 



A low much-branched shrub, usually about a foot tall, with 

 small evergreen leaves, blooming in March and April. The berries 

 are few and small, and not very sweet. 



Grows in dry sunny siliceous soils, especially in long-leaf pine 

 forests. 



