IRbofcora 



JOURNAL OF 



THE NEW ENGLAND BOTANICAL CLUB 



Vol. 4 December, 1902 No. 48 



THE VARIATIONS AND DISTRIBUTION OF 



AMERICAN CRANBERRIES. 



M. L. Fernald. 



(Plate 40.) 



The American Variety of Vaccinium Vitis-Idaea. 



The Mountain or Rock Cranberry abounds on the eastern coast 

 and on the mountains of New England where it has long been familiar 

 to botanists and where, either from its lustrous box-like foliage, its 

 delicate rose-pink flowers, or its clusters of tart dark red berries so 

 often gathered for sauce and pies, it is better known than are most 

 of our plants to the non-botanical visitor. The plant has long pros- 

 trate stems which creep and freely root in the crevices of rocks or in 

 damp carpets of moss, and from which spring the densely leafy 

 branches. On bare slopes and dry plains the branches are very 

 short and often prostrate, and t lie plant forms close mats rising only 

 3 or 4 centimeters above the surface of the ground. In more favor- 

 able situations, as the mossy crests of headlands and cliffs, the plant 

 is of looser habit and the branches, rising through the moss, are sub- 

 erect and 8 or 10 (very rarely even 15 or 20) centimeters long. The 

 oblong-obovate lustrous leaves are very thick and coriaceous like 

 those of the box, with strongly revolute ma gins, and they vary in 

 size from 0.5 to 1.8 cm. long and 4 to 9 mm. broad. The flowers in 

 terminal clusters are bright rose-pink or tinged with deep red. 



This little evergreen shrub ordinarily only a few centimeters high, 

 with leaves usually about a centimeter long and with bright rose or 

 red-tinged flowers, occurs throughout arctic America, extending 

 south to the mountains of Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont, the 



