Picrcoccus Nutt. Trans. Am. Phil. Soc. II. 8: 262. 1843. Shrubs with alternate deciduous leaves, and purplish or yellowish green flowers in leafy-bracted racemes, jointed with their pedicels. Calyx 5-toothed. Corolla open-campanulate, 5-lobed. Stamens 10; anthers upwardly prolonged into tubes, exserted. Ovary 5-celled, inferior; style exserted. Berry green, nearly black, or yellow, globose to pyriform. [Greek, many bells.]

Three or four species of eastern North America. Type species: Vaccinium stamineum L.

1. Polycodium Stamineum (L.) Greene. Deer-Berry. Buckberry

Fig. 3257

Vaccinium stamineum L. Sp. Pl. 350. 1753. Polycodium stamineum Greene, Pittonia 3: 324. 1898.

A divergently branched shrub, 2o-5° high, with pubescent or glabrous twigs. Leaves oval, oblong or rarely obovate, acute or sometimes acuminate at the apex, petioled, entire, firm, green above, pale and glaucous or slightly pubescent beneath, 1'-4' long, 1/2'-1 1/2' wide; flowers very numerous in graceful leafy-bracted racemes, jointed with their spreading or pendulous filiform pedicels; calyx glabrous or nearly so; corolla open-campanulate, purplish or yellowish green, deeply 5-cleft, 2"-3" long, 3"-5" broad; bracts usually persistent; berry globose or pear-shaped, green or yellow, 4"-s" in diameter, inedible.

In dry woods and thickets, Maine ( ?), Massachusetts to southern Ontario and Minnesota, south to Florida, Kentucky and Louisiana. Consists of several races, differing in amount of pubescence and in color of the fruit. Squawberry. Squaw-huckleberry or -whortleberry. Dangleberry. Gooseberry. April-June.

Polycodium melanocàrpum. (C. Mohr) Small, is pubescent, with a pubescent calyx and deep purple palatable fruit. It inhabits the Southern States, and is recorded as far north as Missouri.