ERICACE^. (heath FAMILY.) 289 



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

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

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

 young branchlets, racemes, and often the leaves hairy. — Sandylow soil, Maine 

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



3. G. fronddsa, Torr. & Gr. (Blue Tangle. Danglebeert.) Smooth 

 (3° -6° high); branches slender and divergent; leaues obovate-oblong, blunt, 

 pale, glaucous beneath ; racemes slender, loose ; bracts oblong or linear, deciduous, 

 shorte)' than the slender drooping pedicels ; corolla globular-bell-shaped ; fruit dark 

 blue Avith a white bloom (sweet and edible). — Low copses, coast of New Eng- 

 land to Kentucky, and southward. May, June. 



4. G. resindsa, Torr. & Gr. (Black Hbckleberky.) Much branched, 

 rigid, slightly pubescent when young (1° - 3° high) ; leaves oval, oblong-ovate, or 

 oblong, thickly clothed and at first clammy, as well as the flowers, with shining res- 

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

 the flowers ; bracts and bractlets (reddish) small and deciduous ; corolla ovoid-coni- 

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

 (pleasant, very rarely white). — Woodlands and swamps: common (except 

 southwestward towards the Mississippi). May, June. — The common Huckle- 

 berry of the North. 



2. VACCINIUM, L. Ckanbeeet. Blubbeeet. Bilbeeht. 



Corolla various in shape ; the limb 4 - 5-cleft, revolute. Stamens 8 or 10 : 

 anthers sometimes 2-awned on the back ; the cells separate and prolonged up- 

 wards 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 solitary, clustered, or racemed flowers : the 

 corolla white or reddish. (Ancient Latin name, of obscure derivation.) 



§ 1. OXYCOCCUS, Tourn. Ovary i-celled: corolla i-parted, the long narrow 

 divisions revolute : anthers 8, awnless, tapering above into very long tubes : pedi- 

 cels slender. 



* Stems very slender, creeping or trailing : leaves small, entire, whitened beneath, ever- 

 green : pedicels erect, unth the pale rose-colored flower nodding on their summit : 

 corolla deeply i-parted: berries red, acid. 



1. V. Oxyo6ocus, L. (Small Cranbeeet.) Stems very slender (4' - 

 9' long) ; leaves ovate, acute, with strongly revolute margins (2" - 3" long) ; pedicels 

 1-4, terminal ; filaments more than half the length of the anthers. (Oxycoccus 

 vulgaris, Pursh.) — Peat-bogs, New England and Pennsylvania to Wisconsin, 

 and northward. June. — Berry 3" -4" broad, often speckled with white when 

 young; seldom gathered for the market. (Eu.) 



2. V. maeroc^rpon, Ait. (Large or American Cranberry.) Stems 

 elongated (l°-3° long), the flowering branches ascending ; leaves oblong, obtuse, 

 glaucous underneath, less revolute (4" -6" long); pedicels several, becoming 

 lateral ; filaments scarcely one third the length of the anthers. (Oxycoccus 

 macrocarpus, Pers.) — Peat-bogs, Virginia to Wisconsin, and everywhere north- 

 ward, but scarcely westward. June. — Berry J' - 1' long. 



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