VACCINIACE^ 547 



Plants tall, 3 to 12 feet, and spreading. 



Flowers solitary in leaf axils, V. ovalifoUum (tall or oval-leaved bilberry). 

 Flowers in groups in leaf axils. 



Fruit blue, V. corymbosum (high-bush blueberry, swamp huckleberry). 



Fruit black, V. airococcum (black blueberry). 



GAYLUSSACIA (Huckleberry, Tanglebeny, Dangleberry) 



Description. — Members of this genus are shrubs with alter- 

 nate and entire or finely toothed leaves. The inflorescence is 

 a raceme. The small white or pink flowers are on two-brac- 

 teolate pedicels. The calyx tube is short, five-lobed or 

 five-toothed, and persistent. The stamens are 10 in number, 

 and their anthers open by terminal pores. The fruit ■ is 

 described as a berry-like drupe, or lo-celled drupe- with 10 

 seed-Uke nutlets. The "seeds" are each covered with 

 endocarp. 



Geographical. — The genus is distributed throughout North and South 

 America. It possesses about 40 species. There are five species of Gaylussacia 

 growing in North America. 



Key to North American Species of Gaylussacia 



Leaves evergreen, finely toothed, G. brachycera (box-huckleberry). 

 Leaves deciduous, entire. 



Fruit with a bloom, G. frondosa (blue huckleberry, tangleberry, dangle- 



berr)'). 

 Fruit without a bloom. 

 Leaves 2 to 4 inches long, G. ursina (Carolina huckleberry). 

 Leaves i to 2 inches long. 



Bracts small, deciduous, G. resinosa (black or high-bush huckleberry). 

 Bracts large, persistent, G. dumosa (dwarf or bush huckleberry). 



Of the above species, G. resinosa is, as a rule, the common 

 black huckleberry on the market. This species is a shrub, i 

 to 3 feet high, with stiff branches, oval or oblong leaves that 

 are very resinous when young, a few pink or red flowers and 

 sweet, seedy, black fruit. It grows in sandy soil from New- 

 foundland to Georgia, westward to Kentucky and Manitoba. 



