THE CRANBEKEY A]STD ITS ALLIES. 161 



happy land as to be reckoned one of the plants which, 

 if allowed, would overrun Britain, and form one of the 

 largest elements in its natural vegetation. Many kinds of 

 game resort to it in the autumn, to feed on its berries and 

 find covert among the plants, which, in the pine forests 

 of Scotland, attain sometimes a height of three feet, and 

 bear fruit as large as black currants, which the High- 

 landers make into a jelly, often mixed with whisky, to be 

 presented to strangers as a special mark of hospitality. 

 The berries, being very astringent, are used medicinally 

 in the Western Isles in cases of diarrhoea and dysentery, 

 and in many places are eaten for pleasure, either un- 

 cooked, with cream, or made into tarts ; and in Poland, 

 where they abound, they are considered a great delicacy 

 when mingled with wood strawberries and new milk. 

 According to G-erard, Bilberries grew once on Hampstead 

 Heath and at Finchley and Highgate, but are not to be 

 met with now in very near vicinity to London, though 

 very abundant in some parts of Surrey, where they are 

 gathered by the cottagers' children, and sold at the 

 nearest market, seldom finding their way so far as to the 

 metropolis. Nor has the plant been yet introduced into 

 gardens, though it will grow in sandy peat, kept moist in 

 any shady place ; and M'Intosh affirms that those who 

 are fond of adding to their dessert will find several species 

 of Vaccinium well worthy of cultivation ; while the editors 

 of the Nouveau du Hamel observe, with almost bitter 

 sarcasm, concerning the similar neglected fate of the same 

 plant in France, that had it only had the good fortune to 

 have been brought from China or New Holland, and been 

 only obtainable with great difficulty as a costly exotic, 

 instead of simply growing wild in the forests of Mont- 

 morency, it would certainly have been very highly valued, 

 if only for its beautiful little pink blossom.* These charm- 

 ing little wax-like flowers, which appear in May in the 

 form of almost globular bells, narrowed at the neck, and 

 slightly toothed at the edge by five small notches, certainly 

 rival in elegance many foreign heaths. They grow singly 



Plate IY., fig. 5 a. 



11 



