Gaylussacia
(named in honour of N. F. Gay-Lussac, a celebrated French chemist, 1778-1850). SYN. Lussacia. ORD. Vacciniaceae. A genus of about forty species of very ornamental, but little grown, greenhouse or half-hardy evergreen or deciduous shrubs, natives of tropical America. Flowers white or scarlet, small, disposed in few or many-flowered axillary racemes. Leaves alternate, persistent, rarely membranaceous, and deciduous, entire or serrate, terminated by a hard spine. For culture, see Vaccinium.
G. dumosa (low). fl. white to rose-red; corolla bell-shaped; bracts leaf-like, as long as the pedicels; racemes elongated. June. fr. black. l. deciduous, entire, obovate-oblong, mucronate, green on both sides, rather thick and shining when old. h. 1ft. to 5ft. North America, 1774. (B. M. 1106, under name of Vaccinium dumosum.
G. frondosa (leafy).* fl. greenish-purple; corolla globular, bellshaped; bracts deciduous, shorter than the slender drooping pedicels; racemes slender, loose. May and June, fr. dark blue, with a white bloom, sweet and edible. l. deciduous, entire, obovate-oblong, blunt, pale, glaucous beneath. Branches slender and divergent. h. 3ft. to 6ft. North America, 1761. (A. B. R. 140, under name of Vaccinium frondosum.) G. pseudo-vaccinium (false Vaccinium). fl. crimson; racemes axillary, erect, secund, bracteate. May. l. elliptic-lanceolate, obsoletely serrated towards the top. h. 1ft. to 2ft. Brazil, 1843. Greenhouse. SYN. Vaccinium brasiliensis.
G. resinosa (resinous).* fl. reddish; corolla ovoid-conical, or at length cylindrical, with an open mouth; bracts and bractlets small and deciduous; racemes short, clustered, one-sided; pedicels as long as the flowers. May and June. fr. black, without bloom, pleasant (very rarely white). l. deciduous, entire, oval, oblong-ovate, or oblong, thickly clothed and (as well as the flowers) at first clammy with resinous globules. h. 1ft. to 3ft. North America (in woodlands and swamps), 1782. (B. M. 1288, under name of Vaccinium resinosum.)