Glabrous, or slightly pubescent, trailing or erect shrubs, with alternate nearly sessile leaves, and axillary or terminal, solitary or several, pendulous or cernuous, slender-pedi'mcled red or pink flowers. Calyx-tube nearly hemispheric, adnate to the ovary, the limb 4-5-cleft, persistent. Corolla long-conic in the bud, 4-5-parted or 4-5-divided into separate or nearly separate petals, these narrow and revolute. Stamens 8 or 10, the filaments distinct; anthers connivent into a cone, long-exserted when the flower is expanded, upwardly prolonged into hollow tubes dehiscent by a pore at the apex, not awned. Ovary 4-5-celled; style slender or filiform. Fruit an oblong or globose many-seeded juicy red acid berry. [Greek, sour berry.]

About 6 species, natives of the northern hemisphere. Type species: Oxycoccus vulgaris Hill. Trailing bog shrubs; leaves evergreen, entire; flowers 1-6 from terminal buds.

1. Oxycoccus Oxycóccos (L.) Macm. Small Or European Cranberry

Fig. 3275

Vaccinium Oxycoccos L. Sp. Pl.. 351. 1753.

V. Oxycoccus intermedium A. Gray. Syn. Fl. ed 2, a1: 396. 1886. Oxycoccus palustris Pers. Syn. 1: 419. 1805. O. Oxycoccus MacM. Bull. Torr. Club 19: 15. 1892.

Stems very slender, creeping, rooting at the nodes, 6'-18' long. Branches ascending or erect, 1'-6' high; leaves thick, evergreen, ovate, entire, acutish at the apex, rounded or cordate at the base, dark green above, white beneath, 2"-8" long, l"-3 1/2" wide, the margins more or less revolute; flowers 1-6, mostly umbellate, rarely racemose, from terminal scaly buds, nodding, on erect filiform pedicels, 2-bracteolate at or below the middle; corolla pink, about 4" broad, divided nearly to the base; filaments puberulent, about half the length of the anthers; berry globose, 3"-S" in diameter, often spotted when young.

In cold bogs, Newfoundland to Alaska, New Jersey, North Carolina, Michigan and British Columbia. Also in Europe and Asia. May-July. Fruit ripe Aug.-Sept. Bog- or marsh-wort. Moss-, bog-, fen-or moor-berry. Marsh-berry. Crone, cran-, cram- or crane-berry. Crow or craw-berry. Moss-millions [melons]. Sow- or sour-berry. Swamp red-berry.

2. Oxycoccus Macrocárpus (Ait.) Pursh. Large Or American Cranberry

Fig. 3276

Vaccinium macrocarpon Ait. Hort. Kew. 2: 13. pl. 7. 1789.

O. palustris macrocarpus Pers. Syn. 1: 419. 1805.

Oxycoccus macrocarpus Pursh, Fl. Am. Sept. 263. 1814.

Similar to the preceding species, but stouter and larger, the branches often 8' long. Leaves oval, oblong, or sometimes slightly obovate, obtuse at both ends, entire, 3"-9" long, 1"-4" wide, white or pale beneath, the margins slightly revolute; flowers several in mostly lateral somewhat racemose clusters, nodding on erect pedicels, 2-bracteolate above the middle; corolla light pink, 4"-5" broad, divided very nearly to the base; filaments puberulent, about one-third the length of the anthers; berry oblong or nearly globose, 4"-9" long.

In bogs, Newfoundland to western Ontario, Virginia, West Virginia, Michigan and Arkansas. Bear-berry. Marsh-cranberry. June-Aug. Fruit ripe Sept.-Oct.

3. Oxycoccus Erythrocárpus (Michx.) Pers. Southern Mountain Cranberry

Fig. 3277

Vac. erythrocarpum Michx. Fl. Bor. Am. 1: 227. 1803. Oxycoccus erythrocarpus Pers. Syn. 1: 419. 1805.

A divergently branched shrub, 1°-6° high, the twigs pubescent or glabrous. Leaves thin, green both sides, paler beneath than above, reticulate-veined, ovate, ovate-lanceolate, or ovate-oblong, acuminate at the apex, rounded, subcordate or the terminal ones narrowed at the base, finely serrulate with bristle-pointed teeth, flat, 1'-3' long, 1/2'-1' wide; flowers solitary in the axils; peduncles pendulous, filiform, usually minutely 2-bracteolate at the base and less than one-half as long as the leaves; corolla deeply 4-parted, red, about 5" broad; filaments villous, about one-fourth the length of the anthers; berry globose, dark red, 2"-3" in diameter.

In woods, mountains of Virginia to Georgia. June-July. Fruit ripe July-Sept.