High-Bush Blueberry
On the high-bush blueberry the color of the berries varies. Some bushes bear a black, shiny berry, others a smooth, blue, and still others blue with a bloom. The sizes differ also. The berries grow in clusters, at times on branches almost bare of leaves; some are sweet, others sour. The leaves are a pointed oval with the under side lighter in color than the upper; in some cases the under side is hairy. The flowers are pinkish and shaped somewhat like a cylinder. The bush grows occasionally to the height of ten feet, and you will generally find it in marshy places. I know that it grows by the edge of Teedyuskung Lake in Pike County, Pa., where our summer camp is located, but it is found also in pasturelands.
Dangleberry
Another variety is called the dangleberry. The berries grow on stems in loose clusters; they are rather large, of a dark-blue color with a bloom; they ripen late and are not very plentiful. The pale-green leaves are large, white, and resinous underneath, and are oval in shape. The flowers are greenish-pink and hang like bells on slender stems.
Wintergreen. Checkerberry
Almost every one knows the little cherry-red wintergreen berry or checkerberry, and almost every one likes its sweet aromatic flavor but few would care to make a meal of it. The fruit is too dry for hearty eating and the flavor too decided. The evergreen leaves are leathery in texture and their flavor is stronger than that of the berry; they are whitish underneath and dark, glossy green above. They are oval in shape and have a few small teeth or none at all. The flowers are white, waxy, and cup-shaped; they hang like bells from their short stems. The plant grows close to the ground, generally in the woods and moist places. It is found as far north as Maine and west to Michigan.
Do not mistake the bunchberry for the wintergreen. It, too, grows low on the ground, but the bunchberries are in close clusters at the top of the small plant where the leaves radiate. The berries are bright scarlet, round and smooth, and are not edible. Flower and leaf resemble those of the dogwood-tree, to which family the bunchberry belongs.
Partridgeberry
Another ground berry is the partridgeberry. This may be eaten but is dry and rather tasteless. It is a red berry and grows on a slender, trailing vine. Its leaves are small and heart-shaped; some are veined with white. They are evergreen. The flowers grow in pairs and are like four-pointed stars at the ends of slender tubes. Inside they are creamy white, outside a delicate pink. The partridgeberry likes pine forests and dry woods.