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' 



BILBERRIES AND CRANBERRIES. 



"PILBEEEIES are the fruit of "Yaccinium Myrtillus bilberry, bleaberry, blue 

 berry, common whortleberry. Flowers solitary, on naked pedicels, \ inch long ; 

 corolla rosy, tinged with green, globose, J inch in diameter. Fruit dark blue, \ inch 

 in diameter, glaucous. Leaves ovate, J to 1 inch long, serrated, reticulate nerved, 

 rosy when young. Stems many, erect, 6 inches to 2 feet high. Europe (Britain), 

 Asia and America" (Nicholson). 



The bilberry is very generally diffused over the northern countries, growing 

 abundantly on the moors of England and Scotland. It is also plentiful in Ireland, and 

 produces berries the size of currants, of a bluish-black colour, covered with a mealy 



bloom, ripening in October. They are 

 eaten either raw or in tarts with cream, 

 or made into jellies with sugar. In 

 Devonshire they are eaten with clotted 

 cream, and in the northern and western 

 counties of England and Scotland they 

 are made into pies or puddings. 



Bluets^ the large globose blackish 

 berries produced by Y. pennsylvanicum 



angustifolium (narrow-leaved), "are highly esteemed by the inhabitants of the northern 

 parts of America, where the plant is indigenous. In Siberia the berries are macerated 

 during the autumn and part of the winter in water, and afterwards they are eaten in a 

 raw state, and fermented along with barley or rye, and a spirit distilled from them ; or with 

 honey, and a wine produced. Sweetmeats are also made of them with honey or sugar, 

 which are much used in Eussia at balls and masquerades " (Smith). Bilberries require 

 similar treatment to that described for cranberries. 



CRANBERRIES are small red fruits produced by slender, wiry, trailing-stemmed, 

 small-leaved shrubs growing in boggy heaths and marshy grounds in Eussia, Sweden, 

 the north of England, Germany, and in North America. They are abundant in the 



Fig. 36. BlLBEEEY AND PEAE-SHAPED C/KANBEBBY. 



HALF NATUBAL SIZE. 



