EVERGREEN HUCKLEBERRY. 101 



TheRkd 1 1 leu Huckleberry I V.parvifoliwrri) is also much 



sweeter inland than if growing in too dense shades; these 

 leaves are oval, oblong, obtuse at both ends, not crowded ; 

 stems angular, foliage in Autumn apt to become bright red. 

 There is a white fruited variety, but the common typical 

 color is coral red. This makes a delicious and brilliant 

 .jelly. 



The Low Red Huckleberry ( V. myrtillus), is another 

 smooth, sharply angular, densely cluster-branched, about 

 two feet high, leaves more crowded, ovate acute, entire, or 

 scarcely ever an obscure tooth. Fruit, large, red, and sweet. 

 The flowers of these are small from axils or scale-like leaf- 

 lets, and recurved on the stems. 



The Far Western Huckleberry ( V. occidentale). — This 

 is seldom seen over two feet high, and for the most, is only 

 a very low shrub, measured by inches; smooth stem; leaves 

 thin, light gray-green on both sides, the form varying from 

 oval to oblong, spatuloid, obtuse, or acutish, etc., rather 

 obscurely, being one half to three fourths of an inch long, 

 about one third as wide; flowers mostly single, oblong egg- 

 form, the mouth, like the calyx or cup, four-toothed; berry 

 small, blue with bloom, sw T eetish. This lowly bush, often 

 unnoticed in Spring and Summer by the transient visitor in 

 search of sights and mountain marvels, nestles among the 

 rocks, in steps and damp patches of the steep gorge, here 

 and there; also bordering shallow margins of lakes, stretch- 

 ing far up the entrance, or down their outlets; or, we behold 

 them marshaled in extended marshes, where the} 7 accom- 

 pany sphagnus mosses and such like vegetation as clothes 

 the pseudo lake in its transitional state to the mountain 

 meadow. Unobtrusive hitherto, yet when Autumn comes 

 down the alp, it then boldly paints the landscape in gorgeous 

 hues of gold and royal purple, or scarcely less varied the 

 beautiful tints than the great bow that spans the cloud when 

 the sun smiles benignant to the heavens, weeping for joy! 

 The artist, true to nature, is wont to transfer their high col- 

 oring to his Autumn canvas, glowing and burning from out 

 the softened haze. Then comes the censorious critic to ques- 

 tion his veracity, having been so often appealed to directly, 

 or plied with questions of skeptical import, whether really 

 any such low Autumn-tinted shrubbery existed, and if so, 

 what? It is but due to say this is the principal painter of 

 the dingle-side and mountain meadow margins when Au- 

 tumn's benediction is on the head of the mountains, and 

 his yellow T hair falls softest and haziest among the hills. 



