HORTICULTURAL STATUS OF THE GENUS VACCINIUM. I33 



into tubes at the apex, opening by terminal pores or chinks. 

 Pistil single, with a 4-5 or 8-10 celled ovary which is glabrous 

 or hirsute. Flowers in spring with or before the leaves, berries 

 ripe in summer and autumn, sweetish or sometimes acid, mostly 

 edible. . 



THE NATURAL GROUPS OF SPECIES. 



In making the following natural divisions of the genus I have, 

 in general, followed Bentham and Hooker, but have included 

 the group Oxycoccus, after Gray in Synoptical Flora. When 

 two closely related forms occur over a wide range in latitude, 

 the assigned differences are very liable to fail at some point. 



Key to the Groups. 



A. Ovary 4-5 celled (rarely 8-10 celled in Vitis-Idaea). 

 B. Stamens exserted 



C. Filaments villous Oxycoccoides. 



CC. Filaments puberulent Oxycoccus. 



BB. Stamens included 



C. Filaments glabrous or pubescent Euvaccinium. 



CC. Filaments pilose Yitis-Id^ea. 



AA. Ovary 10 celled (sometimes imperfectly so in Cyanococcus). 

 B. Anthers with two awns on the back. . . Batodendron. 

 BB. Anthers awnless Cyanococcus. 



Oxycoccoides, B. & H. 



Erect branching shrubs with deciduous membranaceous leaves 

 and berries of Euvaccinium, but with corolla of true Oxycoccus: 

 flowers solitary, axillary, on long pedicels, pedicel bractless, but 

 minutely 2-bracteolate at the base. V. erythrocarpon 



V. Japonic um 

 Oxycoccus. {Oxycoccus, Pers.) Gray. 



Corolla deeply 4-cleft or 4-parted ; the lobes linear or lanceo- 

 late-oblong, reflexed ; stamens 8, exserted, anthers awnless, with 

 very long terminal tubes ; ovary and berry 4-celled ; flowers, pale 

 rose-colored, axillary and terminal, nodding on long filiform 

 pedicels ; appearing in early summer ; fruit maturing in autumn. 



C. Stems very slender, creeping V. Oxycoccus 



CC. Stems stouter, with ascending branches 



V. macrocarpon 



