VA CCIXIA LEA E. 709 



5. VACCINIUM L. (See Appendix.) 



Shrubs (some species small trees) with alternate leaves, and small white pink 

 or red flowers, in racemes or clusters, or rarely solitary in the axils. Calyx-tube 

 globose, hemispheric or turbinate, not angled, adnate to the ovary, the limb 4-5- 

 toothed or 4-5-lobed, persistent. Corolla gamopetalous, urn-shaped, or cylindric, 

 rarely subglobose, its limb 4-5-toothed or 4-5-lobed. Stamens twice as many as 

 the lobes of the corolla; anthers upwardly prolonged into tubes, opening by termi- 

 nal pores or chinks. Ovary 4-5 -celled, or 8-10-celled by false partitions; ovules 

 several or numerous; stigma smalL Fruit a many-seeded berry. [Latin, blue- 

 berry.] About 125 species of wide distribution. Besides the following, some 11 

 ethers occur in southern and western N. Am. 



F:owers solitary, or 2-4 together, on drooping pedicels; low shrubs. 



Most or rll the flowers 4-parted, and stamens 8. 1. V, uliginosum. 



Flowers all or nearly all 5-parted, and stamens 10. 



Shrub 7-15 cm. high; leaves obovate or cuneate. 2. V. caespitosum. 



Shrubs 0.3-4 m. high; leaves oval or oblong; northern species. 

 Leaves serrulate, green both sides; berries purple-black. 



3. V. membranaceum. 

 Leaves entire or nearly so, pale beneath; berry blue with bloom. 



4. V. ovali/olium. 

 Flowers fascicled or racemose, short-pedicelled ; leaves deciduous. 



Corolla cylindric or nearly so, 2-3 times as long as thick. 



Flowers appearing before the leaves ; berry black. 5. V. virgatum. 



Flowers appearing with the leaves, berry blue with a bloom. 



6. V. corymbosttm. 

 Corolla urn-shaped, oblong or oblong-cylindric, 1-2 times as long as thick. 



Leaves not glaucous; glabrous or pubescent beneath. 

 Leaves mostly entire, pubescent beneath. 



Shrub 1-5 m.high; leaves oval, large, fruit black. 



7. V. atrococcum. 

 Shrub 1.5-6 dm. high; leaves oblong, small; fruit blue. 



8. V. Canadense. 

 Leaves serrulate, nearly or quite glabrous; low shrub ; fruit blue. 



9. V. Pennsylvanicum^ 

 Leaves pale and glaucous beneath, mostly glabrous both sides. 



Fruit black; shrub 1.5-5 dm. high; leaves oblong or oblanceolate. 



10. V. nigrum. 

 Fruit blue ; shrubs 3-18 dm. high ; leaves oblong, oval, or obovate. 



Leaves firm, mostly entire; berry about 6 mm. in diameter. 



11. V. vacillans. 

 Leaves thin, sharply serrulate; berry 8-12 mm. in diameter. 



12. V. pallidum. 



1. Vaccinium uliginosum L. Great Bilberry. Bog Whortleberry. 

 Bleaberry. (I. F. f. 2783.) Much branched, 1.5-6 dm. high. Leaves thick, 

 glabrous or nearly so, dull, pale or glaucous beneath, obovate, oblong, or oval, ob- 

 tuse, or retuse, entire, nearly sessile, finely reticulate- veined. 10-25 mm - l° n g; 

 flowers mostly shorter than the pedicels; calyx sometimes 5-lobed; corolla pink, 

 ovoid or urn-shaped, 4-5-toothed; berry blue with a bloom, about 6 mm. in diam- 

 eter, sweet. Mountains of N. Eng. and the Adirondacks; Lab. and Quebec to the 

 shores of Lake Superior and Alaska. Also in Europe and Asia. June-July. 



2. Vaccinium caespitosum Michx. Dwarf Bilberry. (I. F. f. 2784.) 

 Nearly glabrous throughout. Leaves 12-25 mm - ^ on S- green and shining both 

 sides, nearly sessile, serrulate: flowers longer than their pedicels: corolla obovoid 

 or obovoid-oblong, pink or white, rarely 4-t(X;thed; stamens rarely 8; berry blue 

 with a bloom, sweet, about 6 mm. in diameter. Me., X. II., N. B. to Lab., west 

 to Alaska, south in the Rocky Mts. to Colo. June-July. 



3. Vaccinium membranaceum DougL Thin leaved Bilberry. (I. F. f. 

 2785.) Nearly glabrous. 3-15 dm. high, the twigs slightly angled. Leaves 

 thin, not shining, acutish to acuminate, short-pet ioled. 2.5-5 cm - ' on K; flowers 

 with their pedicels becoming erect in fruit; corolla depressed-glolx>se or globose- 

 urceolate, greenish or purplish, mostly 5 toothed; berry rather acid. In moist 

 woods, Mich, to Mont., Ore. and Br. Col. June-July. 



