404 WOODY PLANTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



berry on account of its numerous, stony seeds. They are par- 

 ticularly suited to be preserved by drying, and, when prepared 

 in that way, are equal in value to the imported currants, as an 

 ingredient in cakes and puddings. 



There is a variety of this whortleberry growing in the same 

 situations and forming like it large beds, distinguished by its 

 leaves of a darker green and shining black berries. 



This lowest and earliest of the blueberries delights in a thin, 

 sandy soil, and carpets the ground in the openings in the pitch 

 pine woods, with beds of rich, soft green, which in May and 

 June are decked with a profusion of beautiful flowers ; in July 

 and August are loaded with delicious fruit, and in October turn 

 to a deep scarlet and crimson. Its rich, tender fruit feeds im- 

 mense flocks of wild pigeons and numberless other animals. It 

 is a peculiar blessing to the arid and otherwise barren, sandy 

 plains, and helps the poor inhabitants, especially in seasons of 

 scarcity, to eke out their bread-corn, to which it makes a whole- 

 some and most agreeable addition. 



Sp. 8. The Cowberry. V. vitis idaza. L. 



This plant, so far as I know, occurs in only one spot in Mas- 

 sachusetts, which is in a pasture in Danvers, where it was 

 found by Mr. Oakes in 1820, or before. It has some resemblance 

 to the cranberry, but the leaves are larger and the branches 

 larger and shorter. It has a creeping, woody root, with as- 

 cending angular branches a foot or more long. The leaves are 

 coriaceous and shining, like those of box, but darker. The 

 flowers are pale pink, four-cleft and with eight stamens. The 

 berries are blood-red, acid and austere. In the north of Eu- 

 rope, where it abounds, it is used as the cranberry, but is infe- 

 rior ; formed into a jelly, it is thought superior to currant jelly, 

 as a sauce for venison or roast beef, or as a remedy for colds 

 and sore throats. 



