BLEABERRY— COWBERRY i8i 



scant affection, but we never wished them a fate quite so 

 bad as this ! 



BLEABERRY (Vaccinium Uliginosum) 



A closely allied plant to the bilberry is the Bleaberry, 

 Vaccinium uliginosum. It is very similar to the last, but 

 has smaller flowers and rather larger berries. The fruit 

 ripens somewhat later, and is scarcely so acid in flavour. 

 It has the same grey bloom. It may readily be dis- 

 tinguished from the bilberry by its foliage. In the 

 bilberry the leaves are smooth on each side and toothed 

 along their margins, while in the present plant they have 

 a downy, glaucous under-surface, and their margins un- 

 broken by serrations. As the bleaberry is found on marshy 

 ground, it is sometimes called the bog whortleberry. Both 

 these plants supply valued food to the grouse and other 

 birds. " Blae " is a north-country word meaning livid, 

 pinched, blue-looking, and these berries are bleaberries 

 because of the blue-grey down that is upon them. 



COWBERRY (Vaccinium Vitis Idcea) 



Yet another Vaccinium is the Cowberry — V. Vitis Idcea. 

 Its stem, as befits a mountain and moorland plant, is short 

 and sturdy, and, in May and June, bears at its extremity 

 a cluster of little campanulate flowers, of waxen texture, 

 and of pale flesh colour. In September we find the ripened 

 fruit, a many-seeded, globular berry, and scarlet in colour ; 

 much like the perhaps better-known cranberry. It is 

 somewhat harsh and bitter to the taste in its fresh 

 state, but when the fruit is made into jelly, or otherwise 



