HUCKLEBERRY FAMILY 



Europe, Asia, and America, well up toward the limit 

 of the timber line. Like all the alpine and arctic 

 plants it is dwarfed in stem and branch, although its 

 flowers are lovely and fruit abundant. 



This dwarfing of plants native to high mountains or 

 northern latitudes is interesting from a physiological 

 point of view. Professor Correvon, Director of the 

 Alpine Garden of Geneva, Switzerland, writes con- 

 cerning it as follows : 



" In the first place physiological experiments have 

 proved that it is during the night that the lengthen- 

 ing of tissues and the gradual expansion of the plant 

 occurs. In the daytime the greater the insolation the 

 less growth they accomplish, and, the Alpine night 

 being so extremely cold, there can scarcely be any 

 nocturnal development of mountain plants. It is un- 

 der the influence of attenuated solar rays and dur- 

 ing the warm dusks that the plants are able to in- 

 crease. The hot and powerful sun of high latitudes 

 causes the brilliancy and size of the corollas, but also 

 prevents the equal expansion of stems and leaves. 

 These latter have only the very short space of time be- 

 tween the setting of the sun and the beginning of the 

 glacial night for their growth, and in addition they 

 also profit by the short, cloudy, moist and tepid days 

 that precede the setting in of winter to put forth new 

 leaves and buds." 



Mr. J. M. Macoun, of Ottawa, Canada, writing in 

 Garden and Forest says : 



*' The fruit of the Mountain Cranberry is consid- 

 ered of no value in the warmer parts of Canada ; 

 but in the cold rocky woods of the north, along the 



336 



