217 
VACCINIUM. 
■—Being at leisure; disengaged.—They which have the go¬ 
vernment, scatter the arrqy abroad, and place them in vil¬ 
lages to take their victuals of them, at such vacant times as 
they lie not in camp. Spenser. —Thoughtless; empty of 
thought; not busy. 
The wretched slave, 
Who with a body fill’d, and vacant mind, 
Gets him to rest, cramm’d with distressful bread. 
Shakspeare. 
VACAS, a river of Mexico, which rises in the province 
of Guatimala, and falls into the Pacific ocean in lat. 14. 22. 
N. long. 92. 48. W. 
VACAS, a river of the province and government of 
Buenos Ayres, which runs south, near the Uruguay, and pa¬ 
rallel to it, and enters the Plata, opposite a single island at 
its entrance. 
VACASA, a small island near the west coast of Lewis. 
Lat. 58. 11. N. long. 6.57. W. 
VACATAMA, a river of Peru, which runs into the Pa¬ 
cific ocean. Lat. 9. 25. S. 
To VA'CATE, v. a. [vaco , Lat.] To annul; to matte 
void; to make of no authority.—That aiter-act vacating the 
authority of the precedent, tells the world that some remorse 
touched even Strafford’s most implacable enemies. King 
Charles. —To make vacant; to quit possession of: as, he 
vacated the throne.—To defeat; to put an end to. 
He vacates my revenge; 
For while he trusts me, ’twere so base a part 
To fawn, and yet betray. Dryden. 
VA'CATION, s. [vacatio, Latin.] Intermission of juri¬ 
dical proceedings, or any other stated employments; recess 
of courts or senates.—As these clerks want not their full task 
of labour during the open term, so there is for them where¬ 
upon to be occupied in the vacation only, Bacon. — 
Leisure; freedom from trouble or perplexity.—Benefit of 
peace, quiet, and vacation for piety, have rendered it ne¬ 
cessary in every Christian commonwealth, by laws to secure 
propriety. Hammond. 
VACCA, called also the Cow's or Neat's Tongue, a low 
point on the west coast of Chili, in South America, which 
bounds the bay of Tonguey to the westward. 
VACCARIZZO, a village of Italy, in the south of the 
kingdom of Naples, in Calabria Citra, containing 1000 inha¬ 
bitants, who are of Albanian descent, and are still members 
of the Greek church. 
VA'CCARY, s. [ vacca , Latin.] A cow-house; a cow- 
pasture. Bailey. 
To VA'CCINATE, c. a. [from vacca, Latin, a cow.] 
To inoculate with vaccine matter. Entick. 
VACCINATION, s. The act of inserting vaccine mat¬ 
ter ; inoculation for the cow-pox. James, and Entick. —For 
the mode of its peformance and utility, see the articles Ino¬ 
culation and Pathology. 
VA'CCINE, adj. [from vacca, Latin.] Of or belonging 
to a cow. H. Tooke. 
VACCINIUM [of Pliny and Virgil], in Botany, a genus 
of the class octandria, order monogynia, natural order of bi- 
cornes, erica? (Juss.) —Generic Character. Calyx: perianth 
very small, superior, permanent. Corolla one-petalled, bell¬ 
shaped, four-cleft. Segments revolute. Stamina: filaments 
eight, simple, inserted into the receptacle. Anthers two- 
hor'ned, furnished at the back with two spreading awns, 
opening at the tip. Pistil: germ inferior. Style simple, 
longer than the stamens. Stigma obtuse. Pericarp : berry 
globular, umbilieate, four-celled. Seeds few, small. Calyx 
in most species four-clelt; in myrtilius quite entire. Corolla 
when fresh almost entire, is revolved to the base in oxycoc- 
eus.— Essential Character. Calyx superior. Corolla one- 
petalled. Filaments inserted into the receptacles. Berry 
four-celled, many-seeded. 
L—With deciduous leaves. 
1. Vaccinium myrtilius, bilberry, bleaberry, whortleberry, 
or black-whorts.—Peduncles one-flowered; leaves ovate- 
Vol. XXIV. No. 1638. 
serrate; stem angular. Root perennial, woody.; stem shrubby, 
erect, scarcely a foot high, very much branched, forming 
a small tufted bush. Branches smooth, green, twisted, sharply 
angular, especially the young ones.—Native of Europe, Si¬ 
beria and Barbary, on heaths and stony moors, and in woods 
where the soil is spongy. It is abundant in the mountain¬ 
ous parts of Great Britain. About May, the young fresh 
green leaves, and the flowers, make an elegant appear¬ 
ance. Towards autumn the leaves grow darker and more 
firm, and the ripe berries are gathered in the north for tarts, 
and in Devonshire are eaten with clotted cream. 
2. Vaccinium pallidum, pale bilberry, or whortleberry.— 
Racemes bracted ; corollas cylindric, bell-shaped; leaves 
ovate, acute-serrulate, smooth.—Native of North America. 
3. Vaccinium hirtum, hairy bilberry, or whortle-berry.— 
Peduncles one-flowered; leaves ovate-serrate; branches 
round, divaricating.—Native of Japan, in the mountains be¬ 
tween Miaco and Jedo. 
4. Vaccinium stamineum, green-wooded bilberry, or 
whortleberry.—Peduncles solitary, naked, one-flowered; an¬ 
thers longer than the corolla; leaves oblong-ovate, acute, 
quite entire, somewhat glaucous beneath.—Native of North 
America. 
5. Vaccinium uliginosum, great or marsh bilberry, or 
whortleberry.—Peduncles one-flowered; leaves obovafe, 
quite entire, smooth; branches round. This grows taller 
than the common bilberry, and the stem and branches are 
round.—Native of many parts of Europe and Siberia. On 
marshy mountainous heaths in Britain, but not general. 
6. Vaccinium album, white bilberry or whortleberry.— 
Peduncles simple; leaves quite entire, ovate, tomentose be¬ 
neath.—Native of Pennsylvania, where it was found by Kalm. 
We have also the following species: Vaccinium mucro- 
naturn. Vaccinium diffusum. Vaccinium angustifolium. 
Vaccinium corymbosum. Vaccinium bracteatum. Vacci¬ 
nium ciliatum. Vaccinium fuscatum. Vaccinium frondo- 
sum. Vaccinium venustum. Vaccinium ligustrinum. Vac¬ 
cinium resinosum. Vaccinium amcenum. Vaccinium vir- 
gatum. Vaccinium tenellum. Vaccinium acrostaphylos. 
II.—With evergreen leaves. 
22. Vaccinium meridionale, Jamaica bilberry, or whortle¬ 
berry.—Leaves ovate-oblong, acute, serrate, perennial, 
flat, lucid; racemes terminating, erect; corallas prismatical. 
—Native of Jamaica, in the Blue mountains. 
23. Vaccinium cereum, waxen bilberry, or whortleberry. 
■—Peduncles solitary, one-flowered ; corollas quinquangular- 
ovate; leaves ovate-roundish, serrate.—Native of Otaheite. 
24. Vaccinium vitis adeee, red bilberry, whortleberry or 
cowberry.—Racemes terminating, nodding; leaves obovate, 
revolute, toothletted, dotted beneath. Rootscreeping, woody. 
It is of very humble growth, seldom rising above six or eight 
inches high; and is almost herbaceous, but evergreen. Stems 
mostly upright, little branched, twisted or flexuose, angular, 
smooth, pliant.—Native of most parts of Europe, particu¬ 
larly the northern countries, on dry stony heaths or moors, 
on the mountains. Many places in Derbyshire, and our 
northern counties, are clothed with this humble evergreen, as 
also in Scotland and Wales. 
25. Vaccinium oxycoccus, or European cranberry.— 
Leaves ovate, quite entire, revolute, acute; stemscreeping, 
filiform, smooth. Roots perennial, fibrous. Stems suflruti- 
cose, very slender, smooth, and creeping by means of long 
fibres. Branches scattered, procumbent, leafy, flowering 
about the upper part. Peduncles terminating, aggregate, 
about an inch long, red, one-flowered, having a tew scattered 
or'oppositebractes.—Nativeof Europe, on turfy bogs,mostly 
entangled in Sphagnum and other bog-mosses, which cover 
the surface of shallow waters, so that those who gather the 
fruit are obliged to wade in search of it. The flowers come 
out in June, and the berries ripen in August. Plentiful in the 
north of England, in Scotland, and Ireland in their bogs. 
On Dersingham moor near Norfolk, on Bootham moor near 
Lincoln, and in great quantities in many parts of the county. 
Gamlingay bogs, Cambridgeshire; andPotton bogs,Bedford 
3 K shjra; 
