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604 ARBORETUM ET FRUTICETUM BRITANNICUM. 
Genus XXVII. 
SARA 
VACCYNIUM L. Tue Wuorrtteperry. Lin. Syst. Oct-Decandria 
Monogynia. 
Identification. Liu. Gen., 191. ; Ait. Hort. Kew., 2. p.355.; Pursh Fl. Bor. Amer., 1. p. 282. ; Juss. 
Gens 162.; Nutt. Gen. Amer,, 1. p. 263.; Lam. IIL, 286.; Gertn. Fruct., t. 28.; Don’s Mill., 3. 
p. 851. 
Synonymes. Vitis idea Tourn. Inst. t. 377.; Airelle, Fr.; Heidelbeere, Ger. 
Derivation. An ancient Latin name, but whether of a berry or a flower has been a point in dispute 
among critics, as well as its etymology. 
Gen. Char. Calyx 4—5-toothed. Corolla urceolate or campanulate, more 
or less deeply 4—5-cleft; limb reflexed. Stamens 8—10, hypogynous. 
Anthers 2-horned, dehiscing at the summits, and sometimes furnished at 
the back with two spreading spines or bristles. Style longer than the sta- 
mens. Stigma obtuse. Berry globose, depressed at top, 4—5-celled, 
many-seeded. (Don’s AMill.) 
Leaves simple, alternate, stipulate, deciduous or evergreen ; membranous, 
often beset with resinous dots. Flowers pedicellate, and solitary, simply 
racemose, or tufted, drooping, inodorous, tinted with various shades of red 
or pink, never blue, scarcely yellowish, generally very elegant. Berries 
black, purple, bluish, or red, generally eatable.— Shrubs, low, suffruticose, 
gemmaceous ; natives of Europe or North America. 
The species are in a good deal of confusion, from the whole of them never 
having been studied together in the same garden. We have followed the 
arrangement of G. Don, as the latest and best, not having had an opportunity 
ourselves of examining all the species said to be in cultivation in Britis! 
gardens, 
A. Leaves deciduous. 
a. Pedicels \-flowered, usually solitary, rarely twin, or fasciculate. 
«J. V. Myrri':uvus ZL, The Little-Myrtle-dike Whortleberry, or common 
Bilberry, or Bleaberry. 
Identification. Lin. Sp., 498. ; Smith Engl. Fl., 2. p. 219. ; Don’s Mill., 3. p. 851. 
Engravings. Engl. Bot., t. 456.; Fl. Dan., t. 974. ; and our fig. 1153. 
Spec. Char., §c. Pedicels solitary, 1-flowered. Leaves serrated, ovate, smooth. 
Stem acutely angular, smooth. Calyx hardly divided. Corolla globose 
generally 5-cleft, of a very delicate, waxy, pink hue. (Don’s Mill.) A low 
deciduous shrub. North of Europe, on heaths, stony moors, and mountain 
woods; North of Africa and Asia; and at Nootka Sound and Nova Scotia, in 
America. Plentiful in Britain and Ireland, and also in Iceland; and pro 
cumbent about the subalpine zone in England, Ve 
where it rarely produces flowers. Height 6 in. 
to 2ft. Flowers delicate, waxy, pink ; May. 
Berries bluish black, about the size of currants, 
and covered with a mealy bloom; ripe in 
October. 
Variety. 
“ V. MM. 2 = baccis albis Booth has white 
fruit. Plants of this variety were dis- 
covered in 1835 in the Black Forest. 
The berries are eaten in tarts, or with cream, 
or made into jelly, in the northern and western 
counties of England and Scotland ; and, in other 
parts of the country, they are made into pies and 
1153. V, Myrtillus. 
