CL. VIII.] 13. VACCINIUM OXYCOCCOS. 



371 



The pollen is spherical, surrounded by three rings. The 

 fruit is a beautiful red berry, of many loculi, in each of 

 which there are numerous seeds, and these contain the em- 

 bryon in an erect position in the middle of the albumen. It 

 is ripe in October. 



Diagnosis a7id Affinity. 



There is no species in Europe which is very nearly related to 

 this ; but in North America there grows the Vaccinium macro- 

 carpon, which resembles our species in its creeping stem, re- 

 sembling a root, — in its evergreen leaves, which are of a light- 

 grey colour on the lower surface, — and in the general form of 

 the flowers. But the leaves are oblong-ovate, and obtusely 

 rounded at the extremity; the petals^also are smaller and longer, 

 and the berries larger. Michaux, however, thinks he has de- 

 tected transition forms, and hence he considers V. macrocar- 

 jpon as a subspecies of V. oxycoccos. A North American spe- 

 cies, V. Mspidulum L., has also a creeping stem, but this, like 

 the back of the leaves, is furnished with reddsh brown stiff 

 hairs. The small, almost stalkless flowers, are placed in the 

 axillae of the leaves; the anthers are included within the bell- 

 shaped corolla ; and the berries are of a snow-white colour. 



V, oxycoccos and macrocarpon are distinguished from the 

 other species by the shape of the corolla, which in these is 

 deeply divided, quite open, and seems to have the petals re- 

 flex, whilst the other species have a pitcher or bell shaped 

 corolla ; hence Tournefort long ago formed them into a pe- 

 culiar genus, under the name Oxycoccos, in which arrange- 

 ment he has been followed by Persoon, Pursh, and others. 

 Roth named them Schollera. Sometimes, however, this dis- 

 tinction is not so marked ; and in V. stamineum L., and me- 

 ridioncde Sw., we observe transitions from the one form to 

 the other ; whilst in these last mentioned instances the bell- 

 shaped corolla is deeply divided. 



The affinity of this genus with B^eobotrys and Empetruvi 

 is striking ; through Styphelia and Epacris it is connected 

 with Erica, to which family it belongs ; (Anleit. ii. 

 - A a 2 



