196 SUB-ALPINE PLANTS 



Vaccinium uUginosum L. Bog Whortleberry. (Plate XVIII.) 



Differs from the last by its entire, obovate, or oblong, thin leaves, 

 which are glaucous beneath and have a strong network of veins 

 above ; its rather smaller and more numerous flowers and berries 

 are not pleasant to the taste. 



Bogs, Alpine moors and heaths up to 9300 feet in Switzerland 

 and the French Alps, not descending so low as the last. May to 

 June. Fruit : August, September. 



Distribution. — Northern and Central Europe, Russian Asia, N. 

 America. British. 



Vaccinium Vitis-idcBd L. Cowberry. (Plate XII.) 



Stems much branched, procumbent and straggling. Leaves 

 numerous, evergreen, obovate or oblong, coriaceous, rolled at the 

 margins, entire or slightly toothed at the apex. Flowers waxy, 

 flesh-coloured, campanulate, drooping, with spreading lobes, form- 

 ing dense terminal, drooping racemes. Berries bright scarlet, the 

 size of peas ; they are eaten by Snow Partridges and other birds. 



Mountain woods, turf-moors and Alpine heaths, and rocky 

 pastures up to 9300 feet in Switzerland. May to July. Fruit : 

 August, September. 



Distribution. — Northern and Central Europe, Russian Asia, and 

 N. America, becoming a mountain plant in Central Europe. The 

 plant is often attacked by a fungus called Exobasidium Vaccinii. 



Vaccinium Oxycoccus L. Oxycoccus falustris Pars. Cranberry. 



A small and very deUcate, wiry-stemmed, creeping plant. Leaves 

 small, evergreen, ovate-lanceolate, with edges rolled back, i-nerved, 

 very glaucous beneath. Flowers drooping and fugitive, on long, 

 slender peduncles with a pair of minute bracts below the middle. 

 Corolla rose, deeply divided into 4 lobes which are quite reflexed, 

 exposing the 8 stamens. Berries globular, reddish yellow, then 

 darker. Flowers June, July. Fruit : July to September. 



Only in sphagnum bogs, where it is difficult to find, the flowers 

 being so fugitive. Up to 5600 feet in Switzerland. 



Distribution. — Northern Europe, Asia, and America as far as Ice- 

 land. High mountain ranges of Central Europe, but apparently 

 not in the French Alps (Coste). British. 



ERICACE^ 



Herbs or woody shrubs, often evergreen. Flowers regular, cam- 

 panulate, 4-5 lobed. Calyx 4-5 fid. Stamens 4-10. Ovary 4-5 

 celled. Style terminal. Fruit a" berry or capsule. 



A family of over 1000 species, spread over the whole globe, but 

 particularly on siliceous soil. 



