Vaccinium. ERICACE^. 25 



sistent : flowers in short racemes or clusters from separate buds : bracteate and 

 2-bracteolate. 



* Flowers 5-merous, 10-anclrous. 



V. OVatum, Pursh. Erect evergreen shrub, 3 to 5 feet liigli, rigid : branclilets pubes- 

 cent : leaves tliick and firm, very numerous, from oblong-ovate to oblong-lanceolate, acute, 

 minutely and acutely serrate, glabrous or nearly so, bright green both sides, an inch or so 

 long; the veins obscure or hidden: tlovvers in short and close axillary clusters : bracts and 

 bractlets deciduous : corolla campanulate, 2 lines long, rose-color or flesh-color, barely 

 thrice the length of the triangular acute reddish calyx-lobes: berries reddish turning 

 black, small, sweetish. — Fl. i. 290 ; Lindl. Bot. Keg. t. 1354. V. lanceolatum, Dunal in DC. 

 1. c. 570, a narrow-leaved form. Metagonia {Pi/.cof/uimnns) omia, Nutt. I.e. — Vancouver's 

 Island to Monte/ey, &c., California, on hills near the coast. 



V. crassifolium, Andr. Procumbent, the trailing slender stems 2 or 3 feet long, 

 glabrous or nearly so : leaves small, a quarter to half incli long, from oval to narrowly 

 oblong, sparsely mucronate-serrulate or entire, shining: flowers few and almost sessile in 

 small axillary clusters : bracts scaly-coriaceous, persistent : corolla giobose-canipanulate, 

 nearly white: anther-cells barely pointed at apex: berries black. — Bot. Rep. t. 105; Bot. 

 Mag. t. 1152 ; Chapm. Fl. 259. V. carnosum, Pers. Syn. i. 479. V. mi/rti/oHum, Michx. Fl. i. 

 229. ^[f'txKjonia myrtiJoUa, Nutt. 1. c. — Sandy bogs, N. Carolina to Georgia, near the coast. 

 Habit of Cranberry. 



* * Flowers 4-inerous, 8-androus. 



V. Vitis-Id^a, L. (Cowberry, Mountain Ck.vxberry.) Almost glabrous, tufted, 3 

 inches to a span or more high from ci-ecping stems : leaves crowded, obovate or oval, 

 emarglnate (a quarter to over half inch long), shining above, paler and bristly dark-dotted 

 beneath ; the margins revohite, entire or obscurely serrulate : flowers crowded in a short 

 and terminal secund and nodding raceme: bracts reddish, nearly persistent: corolla white 

 or rose-color, oj)cn-campanulate, rather deeply 4-lobed : berries dark red, acid and bitterish, 

 edible when cooked (a fair substitute for cranberries). — Fl. Dan. t. 40; Lodd. Bot. Cab. 

 t. 616. I'^ finnrtiiiinn. Lam. — Round the Arctic circle, south to the coast and mountains of 

 N. New-England, and Lake Winipeg; on the western coast south to British Columbia. 

 (Greenland to Japan.) 



§ 5. OxYCOCCUS. (Oxycoccus, Pers.) Corolla deeply 4-cleft or 4-parted ; the 

 lobes linear or lanceolate-oblong and reflexed : anthers exserted, awnless, with 

 very long terminal tubes : ovary and berry 4-celled, destitute of false jjartitions : 

 flowers axillary and terminal, nodding on long filiform pedicels, appearing in early 

 summer ; fruit maturing in autumn. 



* Erect shrubs, with deciduous memhranaceous leaves and berries of Euvnccinmm, but corolla of 

 true Oxijcoccus : flowers solitary iiifiie axils: pedicel bractless but minutely 2-bracteolate at base; 

 corolla conical-rostrate in the liud, deeply 4-cleft: fdaments villous. ( V. Japnnicum of Miquel is 

 a very nearly related Japanese species.) — Vaccinium § Oxycoccoides, Benth. &, Hook. 



V. erythrocarpon, Michx. Divergently branching shrub, 1 to 4 feet high, slightly 

 pubescent : leaves oblong-lanceolate or ovate-oblong, acuminate, finely serrate with bristle- 

 tipped teeth, thin, bright green both sides, veiny, acute or merely obtuse at base (H to 

 3 inches long) : pedicel about half the length of the leaf: corolla flesii-color (about half 

 inch long) : berry light red, turning nearly black at full maturity, watery, slightly acid. — 

 Fl. i. 227. O.ri/roccus erecfus, Pursh, Fl. i. 264. 0. erijtlirocnrpus, Ell. Sk. i. 447. — Damp 

 woods in the higher Alleghanies, Virginia to Georgia. 



* * (CKAxr.EiiUY.) Trailing and creeping lignescent plants, with filiform stems, and small per- 



sistent leaves with entire revolute margins and the lower face whiteued: (iliforui pi'diccls 1 to 4 

 from a terminal scaly bud, erect, and bearing a flesh-cohired or pale r()se-cf)lorcd tiower nod- 

 ding from its apex: corolla conical-cylindi'aceous in the bud, deeply 4-parted: lilaments pubcru- 

 lent: berry red and acid. — Oxycoccus (Pers.), IJenth. & Hook. 



V. OxycoccUS, L. (Small Cranberry.) Stems very slender, creeping: leaves ovate, 

 acute, 2 to 4 lines long; the margins much revolute: pedicels 1 to 4 in a fascicle from a 

 terminal and not proliferous thin-scaly bud : filaments commonly fully half the length of 

 the anthers : berry globose, a quarter to a third of an inch in diameter, often spotted when 



