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These three kinds grow only in wet boggy places. A species which is native of America, called Vaccinium macrocarpon, has been very successfully cultivated at Spring Grove by Sir Joseph Banks, Bart. and which has also been attempted in various other places, but not with the same success. The fruit of this species is larger and of better flavour than either of the other kinds. VACCINIUM Myrtillus.
The lower are mostly alder bushes and the topmost a lavish profusion of flowering plants, chiefly cassiope, vaccinium, pyrola, erigeron, gentiana, campanula, anemone, larkspur, and columbine, with a few grasses and ferns. Of these cassiope is at once the commonest and the most beautiful and influential.
Besides the foregoing list of woods, there are others that have been occasionally used for posters and the coarser kinds of engraving, such, for instance, as lime, sycamore, yew, beech, and even pine; and in America, Vaccinium arboreum and Azalea nudiflora. Of these, however, but little is known as to their value.
And the Western azalea, hardly less flowery, grows in massy thickets three to eight feet high around the edges of groves and woods as far south as San Luis Obispo, usually accompanied by manzanita; while the valleys, with their varying moisture and shade, yield a rich variety of the smaller honey-flowers, such as mentha, lycopus, micromeria, audibertia, trichostema, and other mints; with vaccinium, wild strawberry, geranium, calais, and goldenrod; and in the cool glens along the stream-banks, where the shade of trees is not too deep, spiraea, dog-wood, heteromeles, and calycanthus, and many species of rubus form interlacing tangles, some portion of which continues in bloom for months.
Around the great fire-mountains, above the forests and beneath the snow, there is a flowery zone of marvelous beauty planted with anemones, erythroniums, daisies, bryanthus, kalmia, vaccinium, cassiope, saxifrages, etc., forming one continuous garden fifty or sixty miles in circumference, and so deep and luxuriant and closely woven it seems as if Nature, glad to find an opening, were economizing space and trying to see how may of her bright-eyed darlings she can get together in one mountain wreath.
VACCINIUM uliginosum. GREAT BILBERRY. Vaccinium Vitis Idaea, RED WHORTLE-BERRY, and Vaccinium Oxycoccos, CRANBERRY, are all edible fruits, but do not grow in this part of the kingdom. Great quantities of Cranberries are imported every winter and spring from Russia; they are much esteemed by the confectioners for tarts, &c. and are sold at high prices.
The thin, green, mosslike patches seen from camp are composed of a rich, shaggy growth of cassiope, white-flowered bryanthus, dwarf vaccinium with bright pink flowers, saxifrages, anemones, bluebells, gentians, small erigeron, pedicularis, dwarf-willow and a few species of grasses. Of these, Cassiope tetragona is far the most influential and beautiful.
This has rather inconspicuous flowers, and is of greatest value for the autumnal foliage tints. Other species that might be included are V. canadense, V. stamineum, V. frondosum, and V. ligustrifolium. The various species of Vaccinium are of dwarf or procumbent growth, and only suitable for planting in beds, or on rockwork, where they will not be lost sight of.
On the borders of little streams larger plants flourish lupines, daisies, asters, goldenrods, hairbell, mountain columbine, potentilla, astragalus and a few gentians; with charming heathworts bryanthus, cassiope, kalmia, vaccinium in boulder-fringing rings or bank covers. You saunter among the crystals and flowers as if you were walking among stars.
It is of dense growth, the tallest stems rarely rising from the ground to a greater height than about 15 inches. All the Furze family succeed admirably in the poorest of soil; indeed, a dry gravelly bank would seem to be their favourite haunt. VACCINIUM CORYMBOSUM. Canada to Carolina and Georgia, 1765.
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