VACCIXIUM. 
531 
length of the cor. ; cal.-lobes distinct acute. — Link. u Enum. 
Hort. Berl. i. 374 ;” Spr. ii. 209 ; DC. vii. 567. V. Arctostciphylos 
u Willd. Sp. ii. 353 ; Andr. Dot. Rep. t. 30 ” (sec. DC.) ; Pers. 
i. 480 (partly); BM. t. 974; Buch 194. no. 210 (not Linn.). 
V. padifolium Sm. in Rees Cyclop. u no. 22.” — Shr. per. Mad. 
reg. 3, cc. Everywhere on the open mountains and in wooded 
ravines ; above the Mount Church, in Rib. Frio, above S ta 
Anna, S. Jorge, S. Vicente, P t0 da Cruz, at S. Ant 0 da Serra, 
&c. May-Aug. — A shr. from 4 or 5 to 15 or 20 ft. high ; in 
open spots thickly bushy with very numerous erect straight 
st. in. in diam. ; in more sheltered places, or in woods of 
other tr., more loosely branched and tree-like, with st. 1-2 in. 
in diam. ; the wood hard, the bark smooth and pale or whitish 
on the st. and older branches, which are also much infested 
with Lichens, Jungermannias and Mosses, aud reddish or pur- 
plish brown on the newer shoots or twigs. L. changing to a 
rich russet red or red Russia-leather colour in the winter or 
early spring, otherwise dark full gr., shining smooth except 
the midrib beneath, finely reticulate and serrulate, If -2 in. 
(mostly 1|) long, |-f in. broad, stiff coriaceous with very short 
pubescent petioles. FI. numerous in erect leafy-bracteate rac. 
mostly from the last year’s wood close below the new leafy 
shoots ; br. leafy conspicuous oval or roundish thin and mem- 
branous caducous, the larger 3 or 4 lines long or broad. Ped. 
curved slender smooth. Cal. gr. or red on upper side, its 5 lobes 
broadly and shortly half-ovate acute or subapiculate. Cor. 
3-5 lines long, nearly as broad, with 5 broad shallow recurved 
or reflexed lobes, pale waxy gr. or yellowish, tinged on the 
upperside with more or less deep (Russia-leather) red, rose, 
or flesh-colour; anthers included; style simple, only just its 
tip exserted. Fr. oval or oblongo -globose, broadly truncato- 
umbilicate at top dark shining purplish black with or without 
bloom, 4-6 lines long, 3-4 or 5 broad, mostly larger than those 
of V. myrtillus L. (Bilberries) and with a finer acid flavour. 
Seeds small brown angular beautifully reticulated. 
Strictly confined to Mad. proper , where it forms close thickets 
of vast extent in all the upper parts of the island from about 
2000 to 5000 ft., scarcely thriving either above or below these 
elevations and growing in greatest luxuriance at about 4000 ft. 
In the exposed parts of the mountains, it becomes stripped in 
winter of nearly all its 1. ; but in more sheltered spots they 
hang on, changed to a rich russet-red, or, before falling, often to 
a brilliant scarlet or crimson, till the fresh bright gr. young 1. 
appear in April or May — the peculiar Russia-leather redness 
of the foliage in the winter and to the end of March giving to 
