60 Oxycoccu8 macrocarpus. 



found, it is in great abundance, giving the name of Cranberry-swamps 

 to such localities. Extensive Cranberry-swamps are met with in 

 New-Jersey; the nearest to Philadelphia is about a mile south- 

 east of Kaighn's Point. Flowers in May, and continues in bloom 

 till July, at which time the young berries are produced. The ripe 

 berries are often persistent during the whiter. 



The genus Oxycoccus was first established by Persoon. It com- 

 prises a few species of Vaccinium, which possess the characters 

 noted at the head of this chapter; and Vaccinium hispid ulus, thrown 

 by Pursh into Gaultheria, has been thought more properly to belong 

 to this genus. The American species of the genus are but three. 

 1. The plant under present notice. 2. O. hispidulus. 3. O. ery- 

 throcarpus. It is entirely a North American genus, with the excep- 

 tion of O. Europaius, (Vaccinium oxycoccus of Willd.) or European 

 Cranberry, which has never yet been detected in any part of North 

 America. The species here described is called specifically macro- 

 carpus, from the large size of the capsule or berry. The common 

 English or vulgar name Craneberry, or Cranberry, has very plausibly 

 been supposed to be derived from the crooked peduncle near the 

 calix, which with the unexpanded flower sufficiently resembles a 

 crane's bill, to justify the common name. 



Cranberries are so well known in our northern and middle and 

 even some southern states, as a favourite article of diet, that it may 

 seem superfluous to enter minutely on a description of their proper- 



