ERICACEJE. (heath FAMILY,) 247 



Suborder I. VACCINIEJE. The Whortleberry Family. 



1. GAYL.USSACIA, H. B. K. Huoklebbrby. 



Corolla tubular, ovoid, or bell-shaped ; the border 5-cleft. Stamens 10 : an- 

 thers awnless ; the cells tapering upward into more or less of a tube, opening 

 by a chink at the end. Fruit a ben-y-like drupe containing 10 seed-like nutlets. 

 — Branching shrubs, with the aspect of Vacoinium, commonly sprinkled with 

 resinous dots ; the flowers (white tinged with purple or red) in lateral and bracted 

 racemes. (Named for the distinguished chemist, Gay-Lassac.) 

 * Leaves thick and evergreen, not resinous-dotted. 



1. O. brachyccra. Gray. (Box-leatbd Huckleberry.) Vciy 

 smooth (1° liigh) ; leaves oval, finely crenate-toothed ; racemes short and nearly 

 sessile ; pedicels very short ; corolla cylindrical-bell-shaped. — Dry woods. Per- 

 ry County, Penn., near Bloorafield (Prof. Baird), and mountains, of Virginia. 

 May. — Leaves in shape and aspect like those of the Box. 



* * Leaves deciduous, entire, sprinkled more or less with resinous or loaxy atoms. 



2. G. dMHIOSa, Torr. &Gr. (Dwarf Hdoklebebky.) Somewhat hairy 

 and glandular, low (1° high from a creeping base), bushy; leaves obovate-ob- 

 long, mucronate, green both sides, rather thick and shining when old ; racemes 

 elongated ; bracts leaf-like, oval, persistent, as long as the pedicels ; ovary bristly or 

 glandular; corolla bell-shaped ; fruit black (insipid). — Var. HiKTti.LA has the 

 young branchlets, racemes, and often the leaves hair)'. — Sandy low soil, Maine 

 to Virginia, near the coast, and southward. June. 



3. G. frondosa, Toit. & Gr. (Blue Tansle. Danoleberey.) 

 Smooth (3° -6° high) ; branches slender and divergent; leaver obovate-oblong, 

 blunt, pale, glaucous beneath ; racemes slender, loose ; bracts oblong or linear, dedd- 

 uous, shorter titan tlie slender drooping pedicels ; corolla globular-bell-shaped ; fruit 

 dark blue with a white bloom (sweet and edible). — Low copses, coast of New 

 England to Kentucky, and southward. May, June. 



4. G. resinosa, Torr. & Gr. (Black Hucklbbbbey.) Much branched, 

 rigid, slightly pubescent when young (l°-3° high) ; leaves oval, oblong-ovate, or 

 oblong, thickly clothed and at first clammy, as well as the Jiovxrs, with sJdning 

 resinous globules ; racemes short, clustered, one-sided ; pedicels about the length 

 of the flowers ; bracts and bractlets {reddish) small and deciduous ; corolla ovoid- 

 conical, or at length cylindrical with an open mouth ; fruit black, without bloom 

 (pleasant). — Woodlands and swamps ; common. May, June. — The common 

 Hucldeberry of the North. It is said sometimes to occur with white fruit. 



2. VACCINITJM, L. Cranberry. Blueberry. Bilberry. 



Corolla bell-shaped, urn-shaped, or cylindrical ; the limb 4 - 5-cleft, revolutc. 

 Stamens 8 or 10 : anthers sometimes 2-awned on the back; the cells separate 

 and prolonged into a tube, opening by a hole at the apex. Berry 4 - 5-celled, 

 many-seeded, or sometimes 8 - 10-celled by a false partition stretching from the 

 back of each cell to the placenta. — Shrubs with soUtaiy, clustered, or racemed 

 flowers : the corolla white or reddish. (An ancient Latin name, of obscure 

 derivation.) 



