AMERICAN CRANBERRY 



CREEPING SNOWBERRY 



Chidgenes serpyllifblia. Chi6gen.es Jiispidiila. 



Chiogones, snow born, in allusion to the white berries. 



A trailing and creeping evergreen, with slender 

 hairy branches and alternate two-ranked, oval or ovate, 

 small leaves and solitary, axillary, 

 small, greenish white flowers on 

 short recurved peduncles. A na- 

 tive of cold, wet woods, it ranges 

 across the continent from New- 

 foundland to British Columbia and 

 southward to Michigan and North 

 Carolina. The flowers appear in 

 May and June, are bell-shaped ; 

 calyx four-cleft ; corolla four-lobed ; 

 stamens eight ; ovary four-celled. 

 The berry is snow white, aromatic, 

 many-seeded, rather mealy ; usual- 



J 



ly minutely bristly. 



Cree P in s snowterry, 



bhpidula. Leaves 



long. 



to 



AMERICAN CRANBERRY 

 Oxy coccus macrocdrpus. 



Oxycocc^^s, sharp berry, of Greek derivation, referring to 

 the sharp acid of the fruit. Cranberry is referred to a fan- 

 cied resemblance between the stem, calyx, and petals, as 

 the bud is about to unfold, and the neck, head, and bill 

 of a crane ; hence craneberry, soon corrupted into cran- 

 berry. 



A trailing evergreen shrub with short, erect fruiting 

 branches, alternate, nearly sessile leaves, and nodding 

 slender peduncles, pale pink flowers. The leaves are 



341 



