igoa] Fernald, — Variations of American Cranberries 233 



of Europe, while the infrequent occurrence of the dwarf form on the 

 mountains of northern Europe has been considered worthy of special 

 comment. Thus in 182 1 Sir William Hooker in his Flora Scot ica 

 (118) said "A dwarf variety, very bushy, with leaves much crowded, 

 and only half the size of the common plant, but having flowers full 

 as large, is found by Mr. Murray on the Campsie hills, near Giasg- 

 [ow], and on hills in Arran. This retains its characters in the 

 gardens, where in England it has been long known under the name 

 of V. buxifolium." l 



In 1825 an excellent plate of the dwarf plant was published by 

 Loddiges as Vaccinium Vitis-Idaea minor, "a very pretty variety of 

 the Vitis-idaea: it is a native of the north of Europe and America, 

 and is a low evergreen shrub, growing not more than four or five 

 inches in height, and flowering with us [in England] in May and 

 June."" The varietal name minor, applied by Loddiges to the small 

 American plant, was obviously in contradistinction to his Vaccinium 

 Vitis-Idaea major " which grows in many of the northern parts of 

 Europe," and which he had previously illustrated. 3 



Early in the last century Chamisso, botanist to the Roman zoff 

 expedition, collected in Kamtschatka and on the island of Unalaska 

 the small form characteristic of North America, and soon thereafter 

 Mertens collected the same plant at Sitka. A specimen of the 

 Unalaska plant in the Gray Herbarium is labelled in the handwriting 

 of Chamisso " Vaccinium Vitis-Idaea L. var.," and in commenting 

 upon the plant its collector compared its small foliage with that of 

 the Greenland form of the species: " Parvitate foliorum cum speci- 

 minibus groenlandicis convenit." 4 The Mertens specimens collected 

 at Sitka were likewise distributed as an unnamed variety, while Bon- 

 gard who critically studied them emphasized their divergence from 

 the European type : " Foliorum parvitate ab europaea planta 



recedens." 6 



At about the same time Ernst Meyer identified a the American 

 plant with the small form mentioned by Hooker as Vaccinium 



1 Possibly V. buxifolium, Gilib. Fl. I.ituan. i. 4 ( 1 7S1 ). which is referred by 

 European authors to V. Vitis-Idaea. 



2 Loddiges, Pot. Cab. xi. no. 1023 (1S25). 



3 Loddiges, 1. c. vii. no. 616 (1822), * Cham. & Schl. Linnaea, i, 526(1826). 

 ■ Bongard, St. Petersb. Acad. Sci. Mim. ii. 152 (1832). 



8 E. Meyer, PI. Labr. 55 (1X30). 



