THE EASPBEEEY AND ITS ALLIES. 195 



mawkish flavour, unsuitable for cooking : indeed, Loudon 

 considered their taste to be so disagreeable that he affirmed, 

 " a single berry will spoil a pie." The Corylifolius has trail- 

 ing stems, green in the shade and purple in the sun, and 

 bears large, white, early-blossoming flowers, succeeded by 

 large brownish-black early-ripe fruit, consisting of but 

 few grains, and tasting slightly acid, which, fits them well 

 for tarts and preserves. The long bending shoots some- 

 times take root at the tip, thus forming an arch, through 

 which superstition was wont formerly to recommend 

 children to be passed, in order to cure them of the whoop- 

 ing cough. This sort would probably well repay cultiva- 

 tion, for Brambles seem very susceptible of the slighest 

 attention that may be paid them, M'Intosh mentioning 

 having seen some in Lincolnshire trained against a south 

 wall, which by this simple expedient had been much im- 

 proved in both size and flavour. 



Another common English kind, the Dewberry, or Grey 

 Bramble, offers nothing very peculiar in growth or blos- 

 som, but bears a small berry composed of a very few large 

 grains, covered with a grey kind of bloom, and which is 

 by many preferred to any other Bramble produce. 



Various parts of the Bramble-plant were formerly sup- 

 posed to be endowed with great medicinal virtues, but 

 the only property of the kind now attributed to it is that 

 jam made of the berries is considered to be very good for 

 sore throats. In France, where they are called Mures 

 sauvages, they are used to colour wine, and it is said that 

 their juice mixed with raisin wine will give to it not only 

 the colour, but even much of the flavour of claret, while 

 even alone it can be made into an inferior wine, which 

 yields on distillation a strong spirit. The green twigs 

 afford a black dye for woollen, silk, or mohair, and silk- 

 worms, it is said, will feed on the leaves when those of 

 the Mulberry are not procurable. Competing here with 

 so many more refined garden plants, the berries of the 

 Bramble tribe are but little appreciated, but in frigid 

 climes, where vegetation is much more restricted, they 

 occupy a vastly more important place, and by the kind 

 dispensation of Providence attain also far greater perfec- 



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