24 Rhodora [FEBRUARY 
This long but convincing extract is quoted as showing how firm 
had been the conviction in northern Europe previously to the time of 
Gerarde, that Vaccinium Vitis-Idaea was a true Grape. And although 
the name **Wine-berry" is no longer in general use for Vaccinium Vi- 
tis-Idaea, it was still known to the herbalists in 1633. At that time, 
Thomas Johnson, in a able of English names “gathered out of 
antient written and printed Copies, and from the mouthes of plaine 
and simple country people," recorded the statement that “ Wyneberry 
is Vaccinia.” ! And it is worthy of note that the learned Charles 
Pickering identified the “kind of red wine-beries," seen on the coast 
of Nova Scotia in 1623 as Vaccinium Vitis-Idaea? In none of the 
modern Scandinavian floras is the writer able to find the name V £nbaer 
used for Vaccinium Vitis-Idaea, and it is possible that the name was 
used only in England and Scotland; but in many different regions in 
the North,— Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Switzerland, 
Siberia, etc.— wine, brandy or other alcoholic beverages were formerly 
prepared from the berries. ‘Thus, Gunnerus, in his Flora of Norway, 
enumerating the uses of Vaccinium Vitis-Idaea, states on the authority 
of Johan Paulli, that “wine also can be made from the berries." ? 
Liljeblad states that in Sweden “wine can be made from the berries." 4 
In Denmark, likewise, “they make from the berries a sparkling drink, 
and a good brandy”; and Gmelin, in his Flora of Baden tells us, that 
" the berries, especially in the northern regions, in Sweden and Russia, 
are preserved in various ways....'lhey likewise are ingredients in 
various beverages, various kinds of the drink called Punch. In Siberia, 
from the fermentation of the berries, mashed with a decoction of 
bruised rye, a pleasing sour drink, slightly inebriating, is produced. 
Our mountain people at Kaltbrunn [in Switzerland] distill from the 
mashed and fermented berries a pleasing spirit, strong and very lim- 
pid, which they sell under the name Steinbeeren-Geist or Steinbeeren- 
Wasser." ® Similarly, in the region of the Black Forest in Baden, 
! Gerarde, Herball, ed. Johnson, Suppl. (1633). 
? Chas, Pickering, Chronological History of Plants, 940 (1879). 
3 Vinum etiam er baccis confici potest."— Paulli, Dansk oeconomisk urte-bog, 151 
(1761), according to Gunnerus. 
4 “af báren kan tillagas vin" — Liljeblad, Svensk Flora, 139 (1792). 
5 * Der laves og en kislende Drik af Baerrene, og en god Braendeviin." 
Hornemann, Forsog til en dansk ockonomisk Plantelaere, 533 (1796). 
6 ''Baccae praesertim in regionibus borealibus, in Suecia et Russia vario modo con- 
diuntur....Sic etiam in varia potulenta, varia sic dicti Punsch genera ingrediuntur. 
In Siberia ex fermentatione baccarum contusarum cum decocto Secalis comminuti, 
