262 DESCRIPTION OF NEW SPECIES 



*PICROCOCCUS. (VACCiNnjM, Species Linn, and Authors.) 

 Calyx adnate to the ovary, the border five-toothed. Corolla pelviform, five- 

 lobed, shorter than the stamens. Stamens ten, exserted; anthers with short 

 dorsal awns, deeply bifid and very long, opening by elongated, oblique 

 foramina, with bifid or lacerated points; filaments short, pubescent and 

 dilated. Style exserted; stigma an even truncated point. Berry large, 

 globose and pyriform, invested by the calyx, umbilicate, eight to ten-celled, 

 by abortion six to eight*- seeded. Seeds roundish and elliptic, puncticulate. 

 North American shrubs, with alternate entire deciduous elliptic leaves. 

 Racemes lateral, leafy, peduncles usually without bracteoles, sometimes 

 axillary. Flowers white. Berries juicy, pale green or purplish, bitter and 

 inedible. (The name alludes to the bitter fruit.) 



Picrococcus stamineus. Vaccinium staminium, Linn. 



Hab. From Canada to Florida, common. (Deerberry.) 



Picrococcus elevatus. Vaccinium elevatum. Banks and Solander, Decand. 

 7. p. 567. 



Hab. New Jersey to South Carolina and west to the Mississippi, in Ohio, &c. /3. la the woods 

 of Mexico between Pachuca and Real del Monte. 



Picrococcus ^Floridanus; leaves ovate or cordate-ovate, acute, at length smooth, 

 peduncles axillary, one-fiowered, subbracteolate; corolla but little longer than 

 the five-cleft calyx ; dorsal awns of the stamina minute. Vaccinium Flori- 

 danum. Herb. Schweinttz. 



Hab. Florida. (Mr. Cooper.) I have seen only a single branch, in which the flowers appear 

 truly axillar. The calyx is unusually large, corolla small and contracted. The leaves about two 

 inches long, and more than an inch wide. 



Obs. There is a remarkable abortion of seeds in the berries of this genus. 

 Sometimes we find scarcely more than one or two, rarely more than six or 

 eight, although the berry is uncommonly large, (near half an inch in diameter 

 sometimes.) The seeds are about the size of those of Mignionette, or a little 

 larger, elliptic-ovate and convex, brown, with a pitted epidermis, and a large, con- 

 formable, oily, and fleshy white albumen. In all the seeds I have now had an 

 opportunity of examining, the embryo is wanting. The species here brought 

 together, and proposed as a genus, are, again, a very natural group. 



