184 KEY AND FLORA 
warty green branches. Leaves oblong or oblong-lanceolate, sharply 
serrate, with little bristle-pointed teeth, both sides smooth and shin- 
ing except for down occasionally on the midrib and veins below, 
pointed at both ends. Flowers few in a cluster, longer than their 
minute pedicels. Corolla oblong, bell-shaped, a little narrowed at 
the throat, white or pinkish. Berry blue, with much bloom, ripening 
earlier than the other eatable species, sweeter than No. 5 but not so 
high-flavored. In dry or sandy soil, especially N. 
4. V.vacillans Kalm. Late Low Biurserry. A low, stiff, smooth 
shrub, 1-3 ft. high; branches yellowish-green. Leaves obovate or oval, 
pale or dull green, smooth beneath, entire or nearly so. Flowers green- 
ish-yellow or somewhat pink. Berries late-ripening, blue, with some 
bloom, sweet. Dry, especially sandy, soil. 
5. V. corymbosum L. HicuH-BusH BiurBerry. <An erect shrub, 
6-12 ft. high; branches stiff, young twigs minutely warty. Leaves 
deciduous, oval to ovate-lanceolate, acute, margins bristly, serrulate, 
smooth or,downy, short-petioled. Racemes numerous, appearing with 
or before the leaves. Bracts oval or oblong, deciduous. Flowers white 
or pink. Corolla almost as long as the pedicel, cylindrical. Berry 
globose, blue or black, flavor slightly acid, pleasant. Common in 
woods and thickets. Whole plant extremely variable.* 
6. V. macrocarpon Ait. CRANBERRY. Stems creeping, thread-like, 
1-5 ft. or more in length, the branches not quite erect, sometimes 
8 in. high. Leaves usually oval or oblong, obtuse, thickish, ever- 
green, the younger ones with the margins somewhat rolled under. 
Flowers nodding. Petals strongly reflexed, deep rose-red inside at 
the base, pale pinkish or almost white at the tips. Stamens with 
the filaments hardly } as long as the anthers. Fruit red or reddish- 
purple, ellipsoidal or nearly globose, very acid, much valued for sauce, 
pies, and jellies. Common in peat bogs and wet meadows N. 
77. PRIMULACEZ. Primrose Famity 
Herbs, with simple leaves, often most or all of them basal. 
Flowers bisexual and actinomorphiec, generally sympetalous. 
Stamens commonly 5, inserted on the corolla, opposite its 
lobes. Pistil consisting of a single stigma and style and a 
(generally free) 1-celled ovary, with a free central placenta. 
Leaves all basal. m 
(a) Segments of corolla not reflexed, throat open. Stamens in- 
cluded, Primula, I 
