CRANBERRY 233 



grapes, marsh-berry, moss-berry, moor-berry, bog-berry, 

 and bog-wort. Why it should be called cranberry is not 

 so immediately obvious, and as two or three different 

 reasons are given we may not uncharitably assume that 

 nobody knows : all are so unsatisfactory that it is really 

 not worth while to set them forth. 



The stems of the cranberry are very slender and 

 delicate, and clothed with small evergreen leaves, much 

 like those of the thyme. They are almost white beneath, 

 and their upper surface is rolled back at the edges. The 

 flowers, borne singly on long slender stems, hang pendent, 

 and are of a delicate rose-colour, the four segments of the 

 corolla being thrown back, as we see in the flower of the 

 potato, or the woody nightshade. The plant is in flower 

 in May and June. The berries are ripe by August. They 

 are globular in form and crowned by the four little teeth 

 of the withered calyx. They are red in colour, and many- 

 seeded, while their flavour is open to question, being acid 

 and astringent, with a certain dash in it that some people 

 enjoy and others do not. Hooker, we see, declares that 

 " the fruit is highly agreeable " ; a sober botanist as he 

 is, and not at all given to rhapsodies, affirms further, that 

 it makes " the best of tarts." It is at all events pronounced 

 to be very wholesome and strongly antiscorbutic. They 

 will keep a long time if gathered in dry weather and then 

 put into well-corked bottles. The botanical name of the 

 cranberry is Vaccinium Oxycoccos, the latter half of the 

 name being compounded of two Greek words signifying 

 sharp or acid, and a berry. A considerably older author 

 than Hooker afiirms of cranberries that " they take away 

 the heate of burning agues, and also the drought, they 



