CLASS VIII. ORDER 1.] VACCINIUM. 553 



Habitat. — Woods and heathy places ; abundant, especially in hilly 

 and alpine or mountainous districts. 



Shrub ; flowering in April and May. 



The roots of the Bilberry contain a considerable portion of tanning 

 matter. The leaves and stems are also bitter and somewhat astringent, 

 and, according to Withering, goats browse upon the plant ; sheep are 

 not fond of it; horses and cows refuse it. The ripe berries in many 

 parts of the country are gathered and sold in the markets, and are used 

 for making tarts, puddings, and preserves for winter use. Children 

 are very fond of them, and in some countries they are eaten with 

 boiled cream and sugar; the juice furnishes a purple dye, and its jelly 

 is said to be used by the Highlanders of Scotland to mix with their 

 whisky for strangers, who are unaccustomed to its flavour, and to dis- 

 guise its strength. 



2. V. uligVnosum, Linn. (Fig 630.) Great Bilberry, or Bog Whortle- 

 berry. Leaves obovate, obtuse, entire, glaucous, and reticulated, with 

 veins on the under side, deciduous ; stem round ; peduncles single 

 flowered, clustered ; corolla ovale. 



English Botany, t. 581.— English Flora, vol. ii. p. 220.— Hooker, 

 British Flora, vol. i. p. 181. — Lindley, Synopsis, p. 134. 



Root woody, fibrous. Stem erect, from one to two feet high, bushy, 

 with round smooth spreading branches, leafy, smooth. Leaves alter- 

 nate, obovate, obtuse, often with a small point at the end of the mid-rib, 

 alternate, on short footstalks, quite smooth and entire, of a glaucous 

 green, much paler beneath, with a stout mid-rib and prominent netted 

 veins, and the margins are sometimes slightly recurved. Flowers 

 mostly several together, each on a short curved simple peduncle, with 

 a short mostly four-cleft calyxy and a pale pink ovate corolla, with a 

 four rarely five-cleft short spreading limb. Stamens with short Jila- 

 ments inserted into the receptacle, the anthers yellow, of two linear 

 pointed cells, opening at the apex, and each with an awn from the 

 back. Style about as long as the stamens, with an obtuse stigma, the 

 fruit a roundish black, or blue black berry, larger than the last species, 

 and inferior in flavour, many seeded, the seeds small, finely striated. 



Habitat. — Boggy places in the North of England ; more frequent in 

 the Highlands of Scotland. 



Shrub ; flowering in May. 



This pretty little busfcy shrub, a native of elevated situations, is a very 

 useful plant, as afi"ording a good covering for alpine birds, and also an 

 excellent food in the fruit. It is also applied to other purposes. Ac- 

 cording to Hooker, the leaves are added to Lycopodium alpinum by 

 the Icelanders, in order to produce a yellow dye for colouring woollens ; 

 and it is said that the vintners in France use the juice of the berries to 

 colour their wines red : and Linnaeus states that large quantities of the 

 berries, when eaten, occasion slight head-ache, especially when full 

 grown and quite ripe. 



