Edible Wild Fruits of New York. 



grows in sandy, gravelly or rocky soil and even in crevices in rocks. 

 It occurs in all parts of the State. Certainly such a plant ought to be 

 capable of cultivation. Two varieties are worthy of mention. One 

 occurs on the Shawangunk Mountains and possibly on the Highlands, 

 and has its foliage of a glaucous, or pale green hue. Its berries are 

 either globose or oval and blue or black. It is not mentioned in 

 the botanies. The other is a dwarf, narrow-leaved form, designated 

 as variety angustifolium. In the flora of North America it is credited 

 to Labrador, Hudson's Bay, Newfoundland and the alpine regions of 

 the White Mountains of New Hampshire ; but it also occurs on the 

 high peaks of the Adirondacks and on Sam's Point in our own State. 

 In the latter locality it was found in fruit, though but three or four 

 inches high. 



The tufted blueberry {Vaccinium cwspitosum) is a small species 

 scarcely more than six to ten inches high. It is northern in its range 

 and was never credited to this State till its occurrence here was made 

 known by the writer. It is found sparingly on the summit of Mount 

 Marcy and also on Mount Whiteface. Its berries are about the size 

 of other blueberries and are very good to eat, but the plants are so rare 

 and so local and so partial to such cold, bleak localities that they can 

 scarcely be considered of much economic importance. Should a sum- 

 mer boarding-house ever be built on any of the high peaks of the 

 Adirondacks this blueberry might be available as a useful plant for 

 a sub-alpine garden. 



The bilberry ( Vaccinium uliginosum) is a much more abundant in- 

 habitant of the higher Adirondack peaks and grows to a somewhat 

 larger size than the tufted blueberry. Its fruit, though edible, is 

 scarcely as desirable as the fruit of our other species and is more scat- 

 tered in its mode of growth. Partridges, or ruffed grouse are some- 

 times seen in these elevated localities, whither they are attracted, ap- 

 parently, by their fondness for these berries. The species extends 

 northward in its range to the arctic regions and westward to Oregon 

 and Alaska. The deerberry, or squaw huckleberry ( Vaccinium stam- 

 ineum), is not uncommon in many parts of the State. It is generally 

 about two feet high and, unlike all the preceding species, its mode of 

 growth is single, or solitary, not in clumps or patches, and its fruit is 

 neither blue nor black, but generally a whitish-green or faintly yellow- 

 ish-green, though it is sometimes tinged with purple or purplish- 

 brown. The fruit is generally abundant and ordinarily is not re- 

 garded as edible. Its flavor has been described as mawkish, bitter, 

 bitterish and astringent, but Dr. Torrey says that it is not unpleasant 



