Vaccinium. | ~ XLV. ERICACEA. 279 
—A small glabrous shrub, with numerous erect or spreading, angular, 
green branches, 6 inches to a foot high, or rather more. Leaves deci- 
duous, ovate, often slightly cordate at the base, seldom an inch long, 
bordered with small teeth, and scarcely stalked. Flowers nearly glo- 
bular, of a pale greenish-white, with a tinge of red, growing singly on 
short recurved pedicels in the axils of the leaves. Berry globular, nearly 
black, covered with a glaucous bloom, and crowned by the short teeth 
of the calyx. 
In mountain heaths and woods, in northern and central Europe and 
Russian Asia, restricted to great mountain-ranges in southern Europe, 
and usually occupying large tracts of land. Common in Britain, with 
the exception of the eastern counties. Fl. spring. 
2. V. uliginosum, Linn. (fig. 627). Bog V.—A smaller plant, more 
woody and branched than V. Myrtillus, with smaller, obovate, or orbi- 
cular leaves, quite entire, but thin, deciduous, and much veined, as in 
that species. The branches are cylindrical, or have scarcely perceptible 
angles, and are much shorter and not so straight. Flowers rather 
smaller; the berries very similar in size and colour. 
In mountain heaths and bogs, in northern and central Europe, Russian 
Asia, and northern America ; generally restricted to greater elevations 
than V. Myrtilus. Common in the Highlands of Scotland, and the 
northern counties of England, but not recorded from Ireland, FI. 
spring. 
3. V. Vitis-ideea, Linn. (fig. 628). Red Whortleberry, Cowberry.— 
Stems much branched, procumbent, and straggling, with numerous ever- 
green obovate or oblong leaves, like those of the Box. Flowers several 
together, in short, dense, terminal, drooping racemes, Corolla of a 
pale flesh-colour, campanulate, with spreading but not reflexed lobes. 
Berries resembling those of the Cranberry, for which they are some- 
times sold. 
In dry, rocky moors and heaths, and open woods, in northern and 
central Europe, Russian Asia, and North America, becoming a mountain 
plant in southern Europe. In Britain, spread over Scotland, northern 
and western England, Wales, and Ireland. Fl. early summer. 
4. V. Oxycoccos, Linn. (fig. 629). Cranberry.—Stem creeping, and 
very much more slender and wiry than in any of the preceding species. 
Leaves small, evergreen, ovate or lanceolate, with their edges rolled 
back, and the under side very glaucous. Flowers drooping, on long, 
slender peduncles, which have a pair of small bracts below the middle. 
Corolla deeply divided into 4 lobes, which are very spreading or turned 
back, exposing the stamens. Berry globular, red, crowned by the 4 
short teeth of the calyx. 
In peat-bogs, in northern Europe, Asia, and America, and in the high 
mountain-ranges of central Europe, but not recorded from the Caucasus. 
In Britain, thinly scattered over the chief part of our islands, but less 
plentiful than formerly from the drainage of waste lands. Fl. summer. 
It is often considered as forming a distinct genus on account of the 
shape of the corolla. 
