VACCINIACEAE. A natural order of erect or prostrate shrubs or small trees, often epiphytal, usually inhabiting North temperate regions, but many are South American and Indian; they also occur in Asia, Africa, Madagascar, and Australia. Flowers hermaphrodite, variously disposed; calyx tube adnate to the ovary, the limb five, rarely four to seven, parted; corolla gamopetalous, globose, campanulate, tubular, or inflated, five, rarely four to seven, lobed, or very rarely four or five-parted, the lobes imbricated, rarely valvate; stamens twice as many as, or rarely equalling in number, the corolla lobes, epigynous or adhering towards the base of the corolla; filaments free or connate; anthers two-celled. Fruit baccate, rarely drupaceous, or dry, often very fleshy. Leaves alternate or scattered, occasionally distichous, sessile or petiolate, usually evergreen, entire, crenated, or serrated, the teeth sometimes glanduliferous. The berries of Vaccinium and Oxycoccus are acid, sweet, and slightly astringent; preserves are made of them, and in some countries they are used as anti-scorbutics. The order embraces twenty-six genera, and about 320 species. Examples: Cavendishia, Psammisia, Themistoclesia, Thibaudia, and Vaccinium.