DEERBERRY 



Polycodium stamineum (Linnaeus) Greene 



Deerberr y is a bushy shrub which often is found growing with 

 pinxterbloom and other heaths, and thrives under similar conditions 

 of soil and exposure. When flowering branches are detached, they 

 present a feathery appearance, but on the bush itself the numerous 

 bell-shaped flowers, which hang below the stems, are often obscured 

 by the profuse, pale foliage. Deerberry is referred by many botanists 

 to the genus Vaccinium, which contains the blueberries and whortle- 

 berries. Its globular fruit, green or greenish yellow at maturity and 

 often more than half an inch in diameter, is seldom eaten. It is some- 

 times called squaw huckleberry In the Southern States the species 

 of Polycodium are called, erroneously, "gooseberry,"and the fruit of a 

 species with purple berries is very commonly eaten. 



Deerberry has a wide distribution, being found from Florida to 

 Louisiana, and northward to New England and Minnesota. 



The specimen sketched grew at Washington, District of Columbia. 



PLATE 131 



