no VACCINIUM MACROCARPON. AMERICAN CRANBERRY. 



hardly seem capable of stimulating anything else besides the 

 appetite. These matter-of-fact people, however, are mistaken; 

 for not only is there a good deal in the history of the Cranberry 

 worthy of attracting our attention, but it has also served as a 

 theme for the poet. Louisa Twamley, in describing a bleak 

 Alpine spot, thus sings of our plant : — 



"The Cranberry blossom dwelleth there, 

 Amid these mountains cold. 

 Seeming like a fairy gift, 

 Left on the dreary world. 



'T is such a wee, fair, dainty thing, 



You 'd think a green-house warm 

 Would be its proper dwelling-place, 



Kept close from wind and storm. 



But on the moors it dwelleth free. 



Like a fearless mountain child. 

 With a rosy cheek, a lightsome look. 



And a spirit strong and wild." 



The capacity for endurance shown by the Cranberry is well 

 expressed in these lines. It grows in wet, swampy places and 

 in high northern regions, at. great altitudes and on low levels, 

 and often creeps over dry sands, in the blaze of scorching suns, 

 where but very few other things would grow at all. 



The very name of the Cranberry is suggestive, if, as some say, 

 it was given to the plant because it is the favorite food of the 

 crane on its return to the shores of Holland in spring. Accord- 

 ins to other authorities, however, the name is derived from the 

 appearance of the flower, which, with its slender stalk, and the 

 sharply pointed tube formed by the anthers around the pistil, 

 has some resemblance to the head and neck of a crane. But 

 whatever may have been the origin of the name. Dr. Prior thinks 

 that it is one " of late introduction, for Lyte (a very old English 

 writer) calls them (/. c, our plant and its fruit) Marrish Whorts 

 (Marshworts) and Finberries, and says (B. VI, c, 1 1) that 'there 



