VACCINIUM. 



being either perfeftly elliptical, or (lightly ovate, blunt, and 

 quite entire, about an inch and a half long, copioufly re- 

 ticulated with fine veins, quite fmooth on both fides ; rather 

 paler beneath. Flowers folitary at the bafe of each tutt ot 

 budding leaves, drooping, each accompanied, at the bafe 

 of its At//', by a large ovate, acute, coloured bradea. i he 

 flowirs feem to agree with thofe of V. Myrtillus in hze, 

 colour, and ftrufture, except that the corolla is more 

 ovate. The berrus are black, crowned with the cup- 

 Ihaped, flightly four-lobed, calyx. 



3. Y.parvifolnnn. Small-leaved Red Bilberry—Stalks 

 folitary, fingle-flowered. Leaves deciduous, elhptical, ob- 

 tufe, pointed, entire, fmooth; glaucous, and flightly veiny, 

 beneath. Stem acutely angular. Calyx fcarcely divided. 

 Stalk of the fruit club-lhaped.— Gathered by Mr. Menzies 

 on the wed coait of North America. The (hrubby pm 

 is eight or ten feet high, with fmooth zigzag branches, 

 whofe angles are as much dilated and prominent as m 

 our firit "fpecies. The leaves mod agree with thofe of 

 ovalifolium in (hape, but are at their full growth fcarcely a 

 quarter fo large, and each tipped with a fmall point ; their 

 under fide rather glaucous, with lefs copious, and far lefs 

 prominent, veiny reticulations. We have feen no foiuers. 

 The berries are red, and make excellent tarts. They appear 

 to be fmaller than the laft, crowned with a fimilar calyx, 

 but Xhm Jlalk is (liorter, meafuring fcarcely half an inch, 

 more drooping, and very remarkably fwelling upward, fo 

 as to be quite club-ihaped, contrafted at the fummit, of 

 which the foregoing fhews but flight traces. There is no 

 doubt of thefe two fpecies being very diftindf from each 

 other, as well as from all hitherto defcribed by authors. 



4. V. pallidum. Pale Whortle-berry. Ait. n. 2. Willd. 



n. 2. Purdi n. 6 " Cluders bratteated. Corolla cy- 



lindrical-bellftiaped. Leaves ovate, acute, finely ferrated, 

 deciduous." — Native of North America, from whence it is 

 faid to have been fent to Kew garden in 1772, by Dr. Sa- 

 muel Martin. Mr. Purdi never met with this fpecies, nor 

 was he able to afcertain it, even by a drift examination of 

 the Bankfian herbarium. Neither are we furnidied with a 

 fpecimen, nor with any information concerning this plant, 

 which, on account of its litflorefccnce, feems here mifplaced. 



5. V. hlrlum. Hairy Japan Whortle-berry. Thunb. 

 Jap. 155. Willd. n. 3. — Stalks folitary, fingle-flowered. 

 Leaves deciduous, ovate, ferrated, hairy all over as well as 

 the young branches. — Gathered on hills between Miaco 

 and Jedo in Japan, by profedor Thunberg, one of whole 

 fpecimens is before us. A taller Jliriib than our Myrtllhts, 

 flowering in April. The branches are round. Leaves like 

 that fpecies in fize and diape, but covered with foft liairs ; 

 their under fide rather pale. Flowers drooping, on very 

 fliort dalks. 



6. V. ullgtnoftim. Great Bilberry. Linn. Sp. PI. 499. 

 Willd. n. 5. Fl. Brit. n. 2. Engl. Bot. t. 581. Fl. Dan. 

 t. 231. Purdi n. 15. (Vitis idxa magna quibufdam, five 

 Myrtillus grandis ; Bauh. Hid. v. i. 518. Raii Syn. 457. 

 V. idaea toliis fubrotundis major; Ger. Em. 1416. ) — 

 Stalks fomewhat aggregate, fingle-flowered. Leaves de- 

 ciduous, obovate, entire, fmooth. Branches round. — Na- 

 tive of mariby mountainous heaths, and alpine bogs, in 

 Sweden, Germany, Switzerland, Savoy, Scotland, and the 

 north of England ; as well as in the more northern parts of 

 America, and on its wed coad ; flowering in April or 

 May, and ripening the berries, which are eatable, but not 

 either very grateful or wholefome, in Augud. Taller than 

 the Common Bilberry, and of a more glaucous hue. 

 Leaves fmooth and even above ; veiny and glaucous at the 

 back ; quite entire, by which this fpecies is readily didin- 



guifhed from all that in other refpefts bear any refemblance 

 to it. Flowers drooping, fleih-coloured, modly four-cleft, 

 with eight long-horned Jiamens. Calyx (hort and blunt. 

 Berry large, juicy, black, with a glaucous hue. Seeds finely 

 driated. A variety with flightly pointed leaves, was pub- 

 lidied by an apothecary at Berne, in 1787, as F. mucrona- 

 ttim, an imaginary fpecies, of which we fliall fpeak at thi- 

 end of our eighth. 



7. V. calyclnum. Large-cupped Whortle-berry. — Stalks 

 folitary, fingle-flowered. Leaves deciduous, obovate, fer- 

 rated, fmooth, with downy ribs. Branches angular. Seg- 

 ments of the calyx deep, ovate. — Gathered by Mr. Men- 

 zies, in woods, upon lotty mountains, in the Sandwich 

 iflands. This appears to be of a much taller dature than 

 the preceding. The leaves at the flowering feafon are an 

 inch and a quarter long, near an inch wide, phant, with fine, 

 copious, pointed, incurved ferratures, and a fmall, blunt, 

 terminal point ; their under fide paled. Flowers about the 

 lower part of each young leafy branch, axillary, drooping, 

 each on a fimple, naked, flightly downy Jlalk, an inch long. 

 Calyx in five, rather unequal, deep, ovate, entire, bluntifli, 

 fmooth, finely reticulated fegments, exceeding the germen 

 in length. Corolla oblong, with five angles, enclofing the 

 anthers andjlyle. Of the fruit we have no knowledge. 



S. V.Jlamineum. Green-wooded Whortle-berry. Linn. 

 Sp. PI. 498. Willd. n. 4. Ait. n. 3. Purfli n. i. Andr. 

 Repof. t. 263. (V. album ; Purfti n. 2, excluding the 

 fynonym of Willdenow. Arbufcula americana baccifera, 

 flofculis comofis, &c. ; Pluk. Mant. 22. Phyt. t. 339. 

 f. 3. ) — Cluders downy, with oval brafteas as long as the 

 flowers. Anthers twice as long as the fpreading bell-diaped 

 corolla. Leaves elliptical, acute, entire ; glaucous and 



rather downy beneath Common in dry woods, from New 



England to Florida, flowering in May and June. The 

 truni is firm, about two feet high, with numerous green 

 branches, downy when young. Leaves an inch and a half 

 or two inches long at the flowering feafon, on very (hort 

 downy ftalks. Flowers copious, white, with remarkably 

 confpicuous, tawny, linear anthers, fpurred near the bafe. 

 Corolla broader than long. Berries greenilh, or white, 

 called Deer-berries. Analogy leads us to confider the in- 

 florefcence of this fpecies as racemofe. Indeed the braSeas, 

 though refembhng the leaves in every refpeft but fize, are 

 ufually but one-fourth as large, and fonietimes not a quarter 

 of an inch in length. Mr. Pur(h's album can fcarcely, by 

 his definition or Andrews's figure, be marked even as a 

 variety, though he fays the Jlowers are larger, and berries 

 more globofe, than in the conrunon Jlamineum. That his 

 plant is not the Linna:an album, appears from the original 

 fpecimen, fent by Kalni to Linnceus, under the denomina- 

 tion of " a Vacclnlmn with white berries ;" but which 

 proves Xylojleum clllatum S, Pur(h 161. No wonder that | 

 no fubfcquent invedigator could ever afcertain V. album ! I 

 We mud notice another error of Linnaeus, to prevent mif- 

 take. He cites under V. Jlamineum the proper figure of 

 Plukenet, but with a wrong fynonym or definition. Here 

 alfo it fall.s to our lot to correft our great mafter refpefting 

 another of Kalm's plants, V. mucronalum, which has ever 

 remained as uninteUigible as the album. His defcribed fpe- • 

 cimen is certainly one of the MefpUus or Pynis tribe, but 

 not in a condition for us precifely to afcertain the fpecies, 

 nor can we refer it to any thing in Mr. Purfli's work. 



9. V. arborcum. Shining-leaved Tree Wliortle-berry. 

 Marfli. in Michaux Boreal. -Amer. v. i. 230. Purfh n. 3. 

 (V. diffufum; Ait. n. 5. Willd. n. 8.)— Stalks axillary 

 and folitary, or terminal and racemofe, naked. Leaves | 

 ovate, acute, with flight glandular ferratures ; pohrtied I 



above ; ] 



