Vaccinium.] ericace^. 



297 



II. Calluna, Salisbury. Ling. 



Calyx of 4 coloured leaves, concealing the corolla, accompa- 

 nied by 4 bracteas resembling an outer calyx. Corolla campanu- 

 late, marcescent. Stamens 8. Capsule 4-celled, 4-valved, septi- 

 cidal and septifragal (valves opening at the dissepiments which 

 separate from them and adhere to the axis of the fruit)."— 5r. Fl. 



1. C. vulgaris, Salisb. Common Linq. Br. Fl. p. 257. Erica, 

 L. : E. B. t. 1013. 



j8. tomentose. 



On barren moors, heaths, and in dry, sterile, sandy woods, thickets and pas- 

 tures ; abundant. FL June — August. 



13. Youngwood copse, and on Bleak Down, commonly. 



Tribe II. Vaccines. 



" Fruit baccate, fleshy. Anthers 2-celled. Disk epigy nous." — 

 Bab. Man. 



III. Vaccinium, Linn. Whortleberry. 



" Corolla ovate, campanulate or rotate, 4 — 5 fid. Berry glo- 

 bose, 4-celled, many-seeded." — Br. Fl. 



1. Y. Myrtillus,li. Common Bilberry. "Peduncles 1-flowered, 

 leaves ovate-serrate glabrous deciduous, stem angular." — Br. Fl. 

 p. 251. E. B. t. 456. 



In dry woods, on downs and elevated heathy places ; not unfrequent. Fl. 

 April, May. i^r. July. Ij. 



E. Med. — On Shanklin down. Abundant on the dry heathy part of Apse castle, 

 about America. On Blackpan common. Head Down, near Niton. On Yarbury 

 hill. 



W. Med. — [Near Kingstone, on the heathy roadside towards Godshill, Dr. 

 Bell-Sailer, Edrs.] 



A humble shrub, scarcely above a foot high, and of no great beauty. Root 

 long, tough, creeping horizontally. Stem upright or ascending at the base, where 

 it is covered with a rough brownish bark, much branched above in a twiggy irre- 

 gular manner, the branches green, with sharp, ridgy, almost winged angles, gla- 

 brous, and of no long duration, probably biennial only, some on every plant being 

 always dried up and leafless. Leavei alternate, on very short stalks, deciduous, of 

 a bright pale green, thin and lucid, ovate-acuminate, glabrous, yith fine glandu- 

 lar sexratures, pale and reticulated beneath. Flowers already appearing early in 

 April with the opening leaves, solitary, axillaiy, drooping, shortly stalked, green- 

 ish tinged with or almost wholly red. Calyx a plain, circular, waved, entire or 

 slightly crenate rim without teeth, a mere prolongation of the outer coat of the 

 ovary, greenish or purplish and glaucous. Corolla deciduous, globose, much con- 

 tracted at the mouth, and there parted into 5 minute reflexed segments. Sta- 

 inens 8 — 10 (sometimes, it is said, 12), inserted around a broad fleshy disk at the 

 base of the style ; filaments short, broad and bent forward ; anthers dull orange, 

 connivent, tapering, 2-celled, each cell with a slender, erect, curved horn at the 

 back about the middle, dehiscing by a teiminal orifice. Style straight, somewhat 

 compressed and angular, a little exserted ; stigma simple. Berry about the size 

 of a small pea, globose, purplish black, with a glaucous bloom and a roundish 



2 Q 



