22 FLOWERS OF THE BOGS AND MARSHES 



The acid nature of the fruit is referred to in the first Greek name. 

 The plant is a trailing evergreen, with a rooting angular stem, slender, 

 and creeping. The leaves are egg-shaped, lance-shaped, coarsely- 

 toothed, with turned-back margin, entire, and bluish-green below. 



The flowers are pink with a wheel-shaped corolla, and the flower- 

 stalks are i -flowered, terminal, slender, long, and simple. The seg- 

 ments of the red corolla are turned back. 



The stem is 3 in. high at most. Flowering is in full swing in June, 

 right up to August. The flower is in bloom for nearly three weeks. 



It is a shrub, perennial, propagated by layers, and worth culti- 

 vating for the fruit. 



The flowers are as in the Whortleberry, but the corolla is wheel- 

 shaped, and the anthers, which are broad, are awnless. The stamens 

 form a tube and are projecting, the anthers being yellow, and the 

 filaments purple and pubescent. The corolla lobes are narrow and 

 linear. The style is filiform, the stigma blunt. The stamens on the 

 outside are closely ranked, and insect visitors must penetrate to the 

 stigma between the anthers. The berry is edible and red when ripe, 

 and is eaten and dispersed in this way. 



The Cranberry is a peat-loving plant which grows only in a humus 

 or peaty soil, and is confined to certain woods and hilly moors. 



A beetle, Chailocnema sahlbergi, two moths, Manchester Treble-bar 

 (Carsia imbntata\ Mesotype virgata, are found upon it. 



Oxycoccus, Cordus, is from the Greek oxys, sharp, coccus, fruit or 

 berry, because of its acridity, and Cranberry is given because it is ripe 

 when the cranes (as they call herons) appear. The second Latin name 

 refers to the 4 petals. 



The names by which it is known include Bog-berry, Corn- 

 berries, Cramberries, Cranberry, Craneberry, Cranna-berries, Craw- 

 berry, Crawnberries, Crone, Crones, Fenberry, Fen-grapes, Marsh 

 Berries, Marsh W r orts, Moonog, Moor-berries, Moss-berries, Moss 

 Millions, c. 



The berries are sharp, and used in tarts and preserves. This rare 

 heath is capable of cultivation. 



ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: 



191. Oxycoccus quadripetala, Gilib. Shrub, stem prostrate, filiform, 

 rooting, leaves small, glaucous below, margins revolute, evergreen, 

 flowers rose, terminal, corolla rotate, segments reflexed, berries scarlet. 



