Bot. [L. vaccīnium bilberry (?).] a. A large genus of plants, chiefly belonging to the northern hemisphere, many species of which bear edible berries. b. One or other species of this genus; spec. a bilberry.
1706. Phillips (ed. Kersey), Vaccinium, a Black-berry, a Bilberry, or Hurtle-berry; also a Violet-flower.
1753. Chambers’ Cycl., Suppl., Vaccinium, in botany, a name by which some authors have called the great bilberry, or vitis idæa magna of other writers.
1796. Withering, Brit. Pl. (ed. 3), II. 372. In structure [this is] certainly different from the other Vacciniums.
1819. Stephens, in Shaw’s Gen. Zool., XI. II. 269. It feeds upon the berries … of the vaccinium.
1882. Garden, 29 April, 292/2. Vacciniums mix well with American plants.
1894. Fenn, In Alpine Valley, III. 36. The dense mass of tender leaved vaccinium.
