VACCINIACEAE 



29 



The flowers are borne on taller bushes, are more numerous, and coloured red on 

 the side next the sun, so that they are much more conspicuous than those of 

 V. Myrtillus. As the opening of the flower is 3 mm. broad, small insects can push 

 their heads and the front part of their bodies into the corolla. The stigma does not 

 project from the flower as in V. myrtillus, but is situated a little way inside the corolla, 

 so that the smaller bees (sp. of Andrena, Halictus, and Nomada) are obliged to touch 

 it before their heads are dusted with pollen. {C/. Fig. 215.) 



V. Myrtillus, therefore, is adapted to the visits of a select number of the more 

 industrious long-tongued bees, and V. uliginosum to those of a much larger set of 

 insects, some with a long and others with a short proboscis. This has been confirmed 

 by direct observation, as Hermann Miiller emphasizes. 



Warming describes the flowers of the Arctic variety microphyllum Lange (Fig. 2 1 6) 

 as first feebly protandrous and then homogamous : they are rather smaller than in the 

 type form (Bot.Tids.,Kj6ben- 



havn, 1895, pp. 47-9). Both 'g'^, ^.^ — "=^ ^ / 



cross- and self-pollination are ~ ' ' '■"~^ 



possible, and it is probable 

 that the latter may even take 

 place pseudo-cleistogamously 

 in the bud. Numerous fruits 

 are set, even when insect- 

 visits fail. 



Lindman says that the 

 flowers of plants growing 

 on the Dovrefjeld possess a 

 strong aromatic odour, re- 

 sembling that of pepper. The 

 corolla varies in length from 



5 to 7 mm. Although the 

 anthers develop rather before 



the stigma, their pollen is not ripe until the latter has become receptive 

 and nectary are larger in the small flowers than in those of greater size. 



Ekstam says that the flowers are feebly protandrous, indeed almost homogamous, 

 in the Swedish Highlands. 



In Greenland this variety is a low small-leaved shrub in habit, often with its 

 branches running close to the ground, and with flowers usually only 3 mm. (rarely 



6 mm.) long. Wormskjold says that it smells like woodruff, but Warming and 

 Vanhoffen were unable to confirm this. The latter botanist collected ripe fruits on 

 Storo as early as the beginning of July (Abromeit, ' Bot. Ergeb. von Drygalski's 

 Gronlandsexped.,' pp. 59-62). 



Visitors. — Verhoeff observed the following in Norderney. — 



A. Diptera. Muscidae: i. Lucilia caesar Z., a j, skg. B. Hymenoptera. 



{a) Apidae: 2. Bombus hortorum L., a j, skg. ; 3. B. lapidarius Z., 2 5, skg. ; 4. B. 

 proteus Gerst., a 5, skg. ; 5. B. terrester Z., a 5, skg. ; 6. Psithyrus rupestris F., a 5, 

 skg. ; 7. P. vestalis Fourcr. 5, freq., skg. (b) Formicidae : 8. Formica fusca Z. (= Rasse 

 fusca Forel) 5, skg. 



Fig. 216. Vaccinium uliginosum^ L.y var. microphyllum, Langc 

 (after E. Warming). A. Flower seen from the side. B. Do. from 

 below. C. Do. with part of corolla removed. D. 

 E. Do. in longitudinal section, ./^and G, Stamens, 

 with stigma. [A-E x\^; F, G,H a i2.) 



Do. from below. 

 //. End of style 



The Stigma 



