VACCINIACEAE 235 



margins. The upper leaf surface, though pubescent when young, 

 is glabrous except on the midvein at maturity, and the lower 

 surface is densely spreading-pubescent at maturity. 



The greenish-white, red-tinted flowers, which appear early 

 in May, occur 5 to 6 together in small racemes. The fruit, 

 which matures early in July, is a somewhat flattened, globular, 

 blue-black berry covered with bloom, which is sweet, edible, 

 and about ]/\ inch in diameter. 



DiSTRiBUTiox. — The Canada Blueberry, a shrub of moist, 

 often swampy, open or wooded situations, ranges from Lab- 

 rador and Manitoba south to Virginia and Illinois. In Illinois, 

 its occurrence is confined to the northern part of the state, 

 where it has been a common inhabitant of drained tamarack 

 swamps in Lake County and a persistent but not abundant 

 shrub at Starved Rock in La Salle County and at Castle Rock 

 on the Rock River. 



VACCINIUM MACROCARPUM Alton 



Cranberry 



The Cranberry, fig. 61, is a low, trailing shrub with slender 

 stems 12 to 30 inches long, which root at the nodes and send 

 up erect or ascending branches to a height of 4 to 8 inches. 

 The branchlets, which vary considerably in length, are more 

 or less pubescent, light to reddish brown, and bear oblong- 

 elliptic leaves about ]/\ to Y2 irich long, which are obtuse or 

 rounded at the apex and base, and entire and slightly revolute 

 on the margin. The leaf surface is dark green and smooth 

 above but glaucous and smooth beneath. 



The pinkish flowers are borne in terminal racemes of as 

 many as 8 flowers, and each raceme ends in a leafy shoot. 

 Each flower pedicel bears 2 bracts, situated above the middle 

 of the pedicel, which are smooth on both surfaces and ciliate 

 along the margins. Blossoming occurs in late June and early 

 July, and fruit matures from about the middle of August 

 through the autumn. The reddish, globular to pear-shaped 

 berries, which are about ]A ii^ch in diameter, are sour but 

 edible when cooked. 



Distribution. — The Cranberry, a shrub of sphagnum bogs, 

 ranges from Newfoundland to Minnesota and south to West 

 Virginia and Arkansas. In Illinois, it is very rare, if indeed 



