[Sidenote: =Vaccinium globulare= Rydb. _Thin-leaved Bilberry._]
A branching shrub 1—3 feet high, nearly smooth throughout, stems
round, only the youngest twigs slightly angled, bark grey and somewhat
shreddy. Leaves broadly oval or obovate, obtuse to acute, somewhat pale
beneath, veiny, sharply and finely serrate, ½—1½ inches long. Flowers
on pedicels ½ an inch long; calyx teeth almost obsolete; corolla
depressed globose, frequently more than ¼ of an inch in diameter,
greenish-white; berry dark purple, ¼ of an inch in diameter.
In beds of snow slides and in woods in the valleys of the Selkirks;
flowering during June.
[Sidenote: =Vitis-idæa Vitis-idæa= (L.) Britton. _Mountain Cranberry._]
A low evergreen shrub with creeping stems, the branches erect, 3—8
inches high, nearly smooth. Leaves thick and leathery, crowded, green
and shining above, paler and black-dotted beneath, ovate or oval,
short-petioled and entire or sparingly serrulate ¼—¾ of an inch long,
the margins revolute. Flowers in short terminal 1-sided racemes or
clusters, nodding, longer than their pedicels; corolla white or pink
nearly ⅛ of an inch long, open-campanulate, 4-lobed; berries dark red,
acid, nearly ½ an inch in diameter.
In bogs and moist mossy places throughout the Rockies; flowering during
June.
[Sidenote: =Chiogenes hispidula= (L.) T and G. _Creeping Snowberry._]
Creeping, branches rough-hairy, slender, 3—12 inches long. Leaves
leathery, persistent, oval, ovate or slightly obovate, acute at the
apex, rounded or narrowed at the base, dark green and smooth above,
sprinkled with stiff, brown hairs beneath and on the revolute, entire
margins; ¼ to nearly ½ an inch long. Flowers white, ovoid, about ⅛ of
an inch long, few, solitary in the axils, nodding, on the lower side
of the creeping stems; berry about ¼ of an inch in diameter, white,
bristly, aromatic.
Throughout the Rockies at the lower elevations, growing in moss and on
damp, decaying logs; flowering in May.
[Sidenote: =Oxycoccus Oxycoccus= (L.) MacM. _Small Cranberry._]
Stems slender, creeping and rooting at the nodes, 6—18 inches long;
branches ascending or erect 1—6 inches high. Leaves thick, evergreen,
ovate, entire, acutish at the apex, rounded or cordate at the base,
dark green above, white beneath, ⅛ of an inch or less long, ½ as wide,
the margins revolute. Flowers 1—6, from terminal scaly buds, nodding on
slender erect pedicels; corolla pink, ⅓ of an inch broad, the petals
curled backwards; stamens and style protruding; berry globose, ¼ of an
inch or more in diameter, acid, often spotted when young.
In sphagnum bogs throughout the Rockies, though not common; flowering
during July.