THE HORTICULTURAL STATUS OF THE GENUS 

 VACCINIUM. 



W. M. Munson. 



The members of the genus Vaccinium, though indigenous to 

 this country, and supplying in large quantities fruit which is 

 surpassed in quality by but few of the more generally cultivated 

 species, have received comparatively little attention from horti- 

 culturists. In 1898 a report upon the Blueberry in Maine was 

 published by the Maine Experiment Station. The object of 

 the present paper is to present as concisely as may be the exact 

 status of the group at the close of the nineteenth century, and 

 if possible to extend the knowledge of these plants in such a 

 way as shall insure a more just appreciation of their horticultural 

 value. 



There is much confusion in the vernacular names applied to 

 members of the genus Vaccinium. The terms "Bilberry," and 

 "Whortleberry" usually mentioned as "common names" by 

 American writers, are seldom or never heard among the common 

 people in this country, while "Huckleberry" is often used indis- 

 criminately for plants of this genus and for the Gaylussacias. 

 In the central states the term Huckleberry is usually applied to 

 Vaccinium corymb sum, while Blueberry is given to the low 

 growing species like Canadense and P ennsylvanicum. In New 

 England, Huckleberry is reserved for species of Gaylussacia, 

 while Blueberry is applied to the lower growing species as above, 

 and High-bush Blueberry to corymbosum. There is no satis- 

 factory explanation of the word huckleberry, which in English 

 works occurs only in those of recent date. 1 The red berried 

 species are, in general, referred to as cranberries. 



1 The Latin writers of the middle ages generally referred to plants of the genus 

 Vaccinium as Myrtillus, and the fruit was known as myrtleberry. It is not im- 

 probable that the term Whortleberry is a corruption from myrtleberry (Cf. Prior, 

 Pop. Names, Brit. Pits. 121) and that the American colonists further changed the 

 name to "hurtleberry." The transition from hurtleberry to huckleberry was easy 

 by simply dropping the first r, i. e., hutleberry. Others derive the name Whortle 

 berry from the Anglo-Saxon heortberg, hart-berry, or as we would say, deer-berry 

 The question is discussed by Sturtevant in the Transactions of the Massachusetts 

 Horticultural Society, 1S00, p. IS. 



