ERICACEAE. 



519 



Leaves obovate, firm. Corolla campanulate . . . . 3. Cowberry V. 

 Leaves small, ovate or lanceolate. Stem slender. Corolla 



spreading, with reflexed lobes 4. Cranberry V. 



1. Bilberry Vaccinium. Vaccinium Myrtillus, Linn. 

 (Fig. G18.) 

 (Eng. Bot. t. 456. Bilberry; Whortleberry.) 



A small, glabrous shrub, with nume- 

 rous erect or spreading, angular, green 

 branches, 6 inches to a foot high, or ra- 

 ther more. Leaves deciduous, ovate, 

 often slightly cordate at the base, seldom 

 an inch long, bordered with small teeth, 

 and scarcely stalked. Flowers nearly 

 globular, of a pale greenish-white, with 

 a tinge of red, growing singly on short 

 recurved pedicels in the axils of theleaves. 

 Berry globular, nearly black, covered 

 w r ith a glaucous bloom, and crowned by 

 the short teeth of the calyx. 



In mountain heaths and woods, in 

 northern and central Europe and Rus- 

 sian Asia, restricted to great mountain- Fig. 618. 

 ranges in southern Europe, and usually 



occupies large tracts of land. Common in Britain, with the exception 

 of eastern England. FL spring. 



2. Bog Vaccinium. Vaccinium uliginosum, Linn. (Fig. 619.) 



(Eng. Bot. t. 581.) 



A smaller plant, more woody and 

 branched than the Bilberry V., with 

 smaller, obovate or orbicular leaves, 

 quite entire, but thin, deciduous, and 

 much veined, as in that species. The" 

 branches are cylindrical, or have scarcely 

 perceptible angles, and are much shorter 

 and not so straight. Flowers rather 

 smaller ; the berries very similar in size 

 and colour. 

 In mountain heaths and bogs, in north- 

 ern and central Europe, Russian Asia, 

 and northern America; generally re- 

 stricted to greater elevations than the jv. 619. 



