i82 THE FRUITS OF THE COUNTRY-SIDE 



passes under the hands of the cook, it becomes very 

 palatable and acceptable. The plant is an evergreen, very 

 compact in growth, branching freely, and has its numerous 

 clusters of flowers pendant from the ends of the branches. 

 From the colour of its fruit it is sometimes called the 

 red whortleberry. 



The meaning of the generic name, Vaccimum^ is not 

 absolutely clear, but it has been reasonably supposed to 

 have been somehow corrupted from the Latin Baccinia, a 

 word meaning a plant that bears berries freely. The 

 specific names of the plants, Myrtillus, uliginosus, and Vitis 

 Id^ea, are bestowed because the bilberry has very myrtle- 

 like leaves ; because the bleaberry is a plant of the marshes ; 

 because Linneus chose to call the cowberry the Vine of 

 Mount Ida : wherefore, we cannot say. 



STRAWBERRY-TREE (Arbutus Unedo) 



The last two plants that we have referred to must be 

 sought in the great bleak moorlands and on the rocky slopes 

 of northern England, or Wales, or away, farther north yet, 

 amongst the mountain scenery of Scotland. Our next plant, 

 the Strawberry-Tree, the Arbutus Unedo, if we would see 

 it in a truly wild state, entails a visit to the west of Ireland. 

 Here, however, it is in abundance, and contributes much 

 to the charm of the scenery, delightful as that is, around 

 Glengariff and the lakes of Killarney. Hooker, Bentham, 

 and other authorities entirely accept the strawberry-tree 

 as being indigenous to Ireland, but it is seen at its best in 

 the south of Europe, and it has been suggested that in a 

 past long since forgotten, one result, maybe, of a pilgrimage. 



