HUCKLEBERRY FAMILY 



dark green above, white or pale beneath, the margins 

 re volute. Flowers appear in June in few-flowered 

 clusters, slightly racemose. Calyx is four-parted ; 

 corolla four-parted, anthers exserted with very long 

 terminal tubes ; berry four-celled, red, acid. Found in 

 bogs from Newfoundland to the Northwest Territory 

 and southward to North Carolina, Michigan, and Min- 

 nesota. Extensively cultivated ; produces the cran- 

 berry of the market. The Small or European Cran- 

 berry, Oxy coccus oxycoccus, also 

 occurs in the extreme north, de- 

 scending as far south as New Jer- 

 sey and Michigan. A southern 

 form appears in the mountains of 

 Virginia and southward. 



Professor Bailey, in " The Evo- 

 lution of Our Native Fruits," 

 writes of the cranberry as follows : 

 " The cranberry, the most 

 unique of American horticultural 

 products, was first cultivated, or 

 rescued from mere wild bogs, 

 about 1 8 ID. Its cultivation began 

 to attract attention about 1840, although the difficulties 

 connected with the growing of this new crop did not 

 begin to clear away before 1850. Cape Cod was the 

 first cranberry-growing region, which was soon fol- 

 lowed by New Jersey, and later by Wisconsin and 

 other regions. The varieties now known are over a 

 hundred, all having been picked up in bogs, and the 

 annual product from tame bogs in the United States is 

 more than 800,000 bushels." 



342 



American Cranberry, Oxycoccus 

 macrocarpiis. Leaves ^' to 

 Yi' long. 



