PAE xe. 4: 
VACCINIUM SALIGNUM, we «7 
Nat. Ord. Vaccinracra. 
Epiphyticum, glaberrimum, sempervirens, ramis teretibus foliosis, foliis undique insertis breviter petiolatis anguste ovato- 
lanceolatis longe acuminatis basi angustatis integerrimis coriaceis subtus glaucescentibus costa prominula margini- 
bus sicco subrecurvis, racemis pendulis axillaribus et e ramis ortis, pedunculo communi 5—10-floro gracili, pedicellis 
gracilibus superne sensim incrassatis, calycis tubo urceolato obscure pentagono lobis brevibus subulatis, corolla 
tubuloso-campanulata elongata 5-gona angulis subincrassatis breviter 5-loba lobis ovatis acuminatis recurvis, fila- 
mentis brevibus dilatatis apice pubescentibus, antheris longissimis. 
Has. In sylvis densis temperatis et subtropicis Himalayze orientalis: Sikkim et Bhotan, alt. 4—7000 ped. #7. Aprili. 
The genus Vaccinium, which is mostly represented in northern climates by deciduous-leaved shrubs 
with small flowers, assumes a very different habit and appearance in the tropical mountains of both the Old 
and New World. In the lower eastern Himalaya, Malay Peninsula, Java, and other of the Malayan islands, 
especially, there is an extensive section—to which the two species here figured belong—which could hardly 
be recognized as having much affinity with the Whortleberry of our moors. They are all epiphytical 
shrubs, having the lower part of the stem often swelling out into a prostrate trunk, as thick as the human 
arm or leg, and sending out branching fibrous roots that attach it to the limb of the tree upon which it 
grows. These trunks are soft and spongy internally, and are reservoirs of moisture and nutriment: they 
send out a few slender, generally pendulous branches, which bear often gorgeous flowers. 
Botanists have endeavoured to separate these generically from the northern species of the genus, | 
but the characters by which the extreme forms have been distinguished are found to be prevalent in such 
different degrees in the various species, that they have been abandoned by Dr. Wight, who has worked up 
the Indian species in his ‘Icones Plantarum Indie Orientalis.’ Dr. Kalotzeah of Berlin, however, takes a 
very different view of the value of these characters, and has distributed the Indian % accuua under five 
genera (Linnea, vol. xxiv.). The present does not strictly agree with his characters of any of these, but 
from its affinity with V. odontocerum, Wight, it will probably be referred to Caligula. 
It is a singular fact, that though the Vaccinia of this habit and character are so very prevalent from 
Nipal westward to the mountains of Bhotan and Khasia, and thence southward along those of the Malayan 
Peninsula to Java, they are wholly unknown in the peninsula of India, and in Ceylon, where, however, some 
of the terrestrial shrubby species grow. The leaves of the present species are used as a substitute for tea 
by the natives of Sikkim. It was discovered in Bhotan by Dr. Griffith. 
Be oe ee ee NUS DSR Os RR CIEN eN pg 
Prats XV. 4. Fig. 1. Pedicel, calyx, and style. 2.Stamen. 3. Tissue of the cell of the anther, with pollen-grains. 
4. Tissue of tube of anther. 5. Transverse section of ovary. 6. Ovule :—all magnified. 
ay ee 
