I40 



FL WERL\ 'G SHR L -BS. 



Not less attractive is it, when the full bunches of oval berries begin to 

 ripen, first turning to amber, then brilliant orange-scarlet, and lastly, 

 when touched by the frosts of Autumn, to a transparent crimson. All 

 through the winter you may see the bright ruby fruit upon the bushes, 

 among the snow-clad branches, sometimes encased in crystal ice and 

 magnified by the magic touch of hoar frost ; nor is the fruit of the High- 

 bush Cranberry altogether useless to the Canadian housekeeper. An 

 excellent jelly is often made from the acid juice and pulp of the ripe 

 fruit, when strained from the flat bony seeds, and boiled with sugar ;. 

 and though somewhat astringent, it forms an excellent sauce for roasted 

 mutton or venison, and is useful as a fever drink mixed with water. 



As a garden shrub this Viburnum is considered very ornamental, 

 from its abundance of flowers and beautiful fruit. It is no other than 

 the fertile plant of the American Guelder Rose. The cultivated Snow- 

 ball Tree of our gardens is the same species, in which the fertile flowers 

 have been suppressed and the showy sterile ones, which only appear in 

 small numbers round the edge of the cyme in the wild plant, greatly 

 increased in number by the skill of the horticulturist. The V. Opulus 

 is also indigenous to England ; and I remember finding the same 

 flowering bush on the banks of a lonely pond in Reydon Wood, Suffolk, 

 and recognized the High-bush Cranberry on the shores of the Otonabee 

 River from its likeness to the shrub that had attracted my notice in my 

 woodland rambles in England. 



The foliage of the High-bush Cranberry takes a bronzed-purple hue,, 

 turning to a deep crimson in the Autumn. The leaves are large, 

 three-lobed and pointed. The flowers are borne on wide-spreading 

 peduncled cymes, having the central flowers very small but fertile ; the 

 marginal ones are imperfect, being destitute of both stamens and pistils, 

 but the corollas are disproportionately large and give the beauty to the 

 flower clusters of this fine shrub. 



The name Cranberry has been improperly applied to Viburnum 

 Opiihis, as it has no affinity with the low creeping Marsh Cranberry 

 that most elegant and charming little plant, with its delicate graceful 

 flowers, myrtle-like leaves, and pear-shaped ruby-coloured fruit. Those 

 persons who use the fruit as a preserve know little of the exquisite 

 beauty of the plant itself. To be admired, it should be seen in its 

 native haunts growing among the soft peat-mosses of our marshes and 

 bogs. The wreaths of fine dark foliage, bearing the delicate pink waxy 

 flowers on slender thready foot-stalks, and the large berries in every 

 stage of progress— green, yellow, deep red and purplish red, resting 

 upon the grey lichens and lovely cream-coloured peat mosses -produce 

 an effect worth looking at. 



