CHAP. LXIX. ERICA^CEJE. OXYCO'CCUS. 1169 



where it is a creeping shrub, flowering in May and June. Pallas says it is found 

 in turfy bogs, in the north of Russia, and throughout tlie whole of Siberia, 

 as far as the Northern Ocean. The berries remain dnrins the whole winter 

 under the snow; and are collected in spring, after it is thawed and gone, as 

 well as in autumn, before it falls. In the north of Europe, as well as in Britain, 

 cranberries have been in use from time immemorial, for supplying an acid 

 drink during the hot summer months, for tarts, and other purposes. For 

 culinary purposes, they are exported from Russia and Sweden to most parts 

 of Europe. During the latter end of the last century, cranberries from 

 Lincolnshire and the north-west corner of Norfolk were sold in the streets 

 of Norwich by cart-loads ; but the extensive enclosures that have been 

 made since that period have, in many parts, destroyed their native bogs. 

 Lightfoot records that at Longtown, on the borders of Cumberland, not 

 less than 20/. or 30/. worth were sold each market day, for five or six weeks 

 together, and dispersed over different parts of the kingdom. The numerous 

 enclosures, drainages, and improvements of heath and bog lands, which have 

 taken place since the commencement of the present century, have nearly 

 destroyed all our native cranberries ; and England is now chiefly supplied 

 with cranberries from Russia and Sweden, and with the sort produced by 

 O. macrocarpus from North America. The Russian cranberries are con- 

 sidered to be superior in quality to those of America. The total quantity 

 from both countries imported, according to M'Culloch, is from 30,000 to 

 35,000 gallons annually. 



Properties and Uses. The berries are powerfully acid and astringent, and 

 they have a peculiar flavour, which is agreeable to some, though disliked by 

 others. In a wild state, they are eaten by cranes and other birds. They 

 may be kept several years, if gathered when quite dry, and then closely corked 

 in dry bottles, and placed in a cool dry cellar. They will also keep in bottles 

 or in casks of water ; which last mode is that practised in the north of Europe 

 and America, and in which state they are exported from place to place as 

 articles of commerce. In Sweden and Russia, they are used for tarts and 

 sweetmeats, and the expressed juice is considered efficacious in fevers. The 

 bankers in Russia, Pallas informs us, make use of the fruit for whitening their 

 silver money, which they do by boiling it in the juice, when the sharp acid 

 dissolves the superficial pa: tides of the copper alloy. The same thing is done 

 in Sweden to whiten silver plate. In Britain, almost the only use to which 

 the berries are applied is that of making tarts ; and for this purpose, since the 

 plant in a wild state has become scarce, this species and O. macrocarpus have 

 been cultivated in various gardens. (See Encyc. of Gard., ed. 1832, p. 137.) 

 In Russia, and in some parts of Sweden, the long filiform shoots of the oxy- 

 coccus are collected in spring, after most of the leaves have dropped off", and 

 are dried, and twisted into ropes, which are used to tie on the thatch of 

 houses, and even for harnessing horses. 



Propagation and Culture. The plant is abundantly increased by laying 

 sandy soil on its shoots, at the distance of 5 in. or 6 in. from its main stem, 

 when it will send down roots abundantly. When it is to be grown for its 

 fruit, a bed of peat soil should be prepared in an open airy situation, where 

 it can be kept moist; or the margin of a pond may be made choice of, and 

 the plants planted there in peat soil, in a bed encircling the pond, 1 in. or 

 2 in. above the level of the water, and about 1 ft. distant from it. The 

 cranberry may also be grown in beds of dry sandy peat; and it is alleged by 

 some who have tried this method in British gardens, that the fruit produced, 

 though smaller in quantity, is of a better flavour. We have little doubt of this, 

 arguing from general principles; and we think it probable that the fruit would 

 be further improved, both in bulk and flavour, if it were grown in peat and leaf 

 mould, rather than in peat alone. A bed, containing a very few square yards, 

 will produce a considerable quantity of fruit, though not nearly so much as a 

 bed of equal extent of the American cranberry, to be next described. 



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