90 WILD FLO WEES OF SPBINU. 



Medico, " as a diuretic. Old Gerarde says the flower- 

 buds, when pickled and used as capers, wonderfully 

 improve the appetite, but the plant is bitter. Both 

 the furze and the broom are subject to parasites, 

 amongst the largest of which is the acrid and bitter 

 Broom Kape (Orobanche major), whose long clammy 

 succulent stems, without leaves, spring up at the roots 

 of the broom at the latter end of May. Its flowers are 

 nearly the colour of the reddish stem, but are some- 

 times tinged with purple. The flowers grow abou 

 half-way down the stem. The Lesser Broom Rape 

 (Orobanche minor) grows on the roots of clover, and 

 the wild thyme is sometimes afflicted by the same 

 " man of the mountain." 



On the cleared woodlands, but more frequently by 

 the side of some clough or dell in the moorland, grows 

 the myrtle-leaved shrubby Whortleberry (Vaccinium 

 myrtillus), or " whorts," as they are sometimes called. 

 This is not a solitary plant : it extends along the dell 

 for miles. Its pretty red waxen flowers appear at 

 the latter end of April, and the purple fruit are ripe 

 in August. The Cowberry or Eed Whortleberry 

 (Vaccinium vitis idasa) is of lower growth, and its 

 leaves are not much larger than those of the common 



