12. V. Vìtis-Idæ̀a, L. (Cowberry. Mountain Cranberry. Foxberry.) Low (6–10´ high); branches erect from tufted creeping stems; leaves obovate with revolute margins, dark green, smooth and shining above, dotted with blackish bristly points underneath; corolla bell-shaped, 4-cleft; berries dark red, acid and rather bitter, edible when cooked. Coast and mountains of N. Eng. to N. shore of L. Superior, and far northward. June. (Eu.)
§ 5. OXYCÓCCUS. Corolla deeply 4-parted or -cleft, with linear reflexed lobes; anthers exserted, awnless, with very long terminal tubes; berry 4-celled; flowers axillary or terminal, nodding on long filiform pedicels.
[*] Stem upright and leaves deciduous, as in common Blueberries; flowers axillary and solitary; corolla deeply 4-cleft; berries light red, turning purple, insipid.
13. V. erythrocárpon, Michx. Smooth, divergently branched (1–4° high); leaves oblong-lanceolate, taper-pointed, bristly serrate, thin.—Damp woods, higher Alleghanies, Va. to Ga. July.
[*][*] Stems very slender, creeping or trailing; leaves small, entire, whitened beneath, evergreen; pedicels erect, the pale rose-colored flower nodding; corolla 4-parted; berries red, acid.—Cranberries.
14. V. Oxycóccus, L. (Small Cranberry.) Stems very slender (4–9´ long); leaves ovate, acute, with strongly revolute margins (2–3´´ long); pedicels 1–4, terminal; filaments fully ½ as long as the anthers.—Peat-bogs, N. Eng. and Penn. to Minn., and northward. June.—Berry 3–4´´ broad, often speckled with white when young, seldom gathered for market. (Eu., Asia.)
15. V. macrocárpon, Ait. (Large or American Cranberry.) Stems elongated (1–4° long), the flowering branches ascending; leaves oblong, obtuse, less revolute (4–6´´ long); pedicels several, becoming lateral, filaments scarcely one third the length of the anthers.—Peat-bogs, N. C. to Minn. and everywhere northward, but scarcely westward. June.—Berry ½–1´ long.
3. CHIÓGENES, Salisb. Creeping Snowberry.
Calyx-tube adherent to the ovary; limb 4-parted, persistent. Corolla bell-shaped, deeply 4-cleft. Stamens 8, included, inserted on an 8-toothed disk, filaments very short and broad; anther-cells ovate-oblong, separate, not awned on the back, but each minutely 2-pointed at the apex, and opening by a large chink down to the middle. Berry white, globular, rather dry, 4-celled, many-seeded.—A trailing and creeping evergreen, with very slender and scarcely woody stems, and small Thyme-like, ovate and pointed leaves on short petioles, with revolute margins, smooth above, the lower surface and the branches beset with rigid rusty bristles. Flowers very small, solitary in the axils, on short nodding peduncles, with 2 large bractlets under the calyx. (Name from χιών, snow, and γένος, offspring, in allusion to the snow-white berries.)
1. C. serpyllifòlia, Salisb. Leaves 3–4´´ long; berries 3´´ broad, bright white. (C. hispidula, Torr. & Gray.)—Peat-bogs, and mossy woods, N. J. and Penn. to Minn., and northward; also southward in the Alleghanies to N. C. May.—Plant with the aromatic flavor of Gaultheria or Sweet Birch.