HUCKLEBERRY FAMILY 



DWARF BLUEBERRY. LOW-BUSH BLUEBERRY 



Vacchiium pennsylvanicum. 



A low bush, six inches to two feet high, found in dry, rocky, 

 or sandy soil and often fringing wet lands. Ranges from New- 

 foundland to southern New Jersey and westward to Illinois and 



Michigan. 



Stems. — Shoots green, branchlets a little angular, bark light 

 green, warty with whitish dots ; stems reddish purple. Winter 

 buds quite large, reddish purple. 



Leaves. — Oblong or ovate-lanceolate, three -fourths to an inch 

 and a half long, acute at both ends, minutely serrate, rather thick 

 texture, terminating in a callous tip. They come out of the bud 

 revolute, deeply tinged with red, which color they retain for a 

 considerable time ; when full grown are glabrous and shining 

 above, smooth or slightly downy on the veins below ; finely and 

 markedly reticulate. Autumnal tint scarlet and crimson ; fall 

 early. 



Flowers. — May, June. White bells, borne in few-flowered 

 racemes. Bracts reddish. 



Calyx. — Adnate to ovary, five-toothed. 



Corolla. — Oblong, bell -shaped, slightly contracted at the throat, 

 white or pinkish, five-toothed : teeth acute ; slightly reflexed. 



Stamens. — Ten ; filaments short, hairy ; upwardly prolonged 

 into tubes ; cells opening by terminal pores. 



Pistil. — Ovary inferior, ovules several ; style even with corolla. 



Fruit. — Globular berry, one-fourth to three-eighths of an inch 

 in diameter, blue with a bloom; very sweet. The earliest of the 

 blueberries. 



This lowest and earliest of the blueberries delights in a thin, sandy soil, 

 and carpets the ground in the openings in the pitch-pine woods with beds of 

 rich soft green, which in May and June are decked with a profusion of 

 beautiful flowers ; in July and August are loaded with delicious fruit, and in 

 October turn to deep scarlet and crimson. 



From its situation and exposure the berries ripen earlier than those of 

 an) r other species. They are soft and easily injured in bringing to market, 

 and liable when in mass to speedy decay. 



— George B. Emerson. 



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