BILBERRIES AND CRANBERRIES. VARIETIES. 



103 



United States, Canada, Newfoundland, and the northern parts of Eussia. These fruits 

 are collected in America by means of a rake, in Germany by wooden combs, but many 

 are picked by hand, as in England, where they grow but scantily. They are packed in 

 kegs and barrels containing from 8 to 20 gallons each for export to other countries. 

 England imports about 50,000 gallons annually. The berries have a sharp, agreeable, 

 acid taste, and are highly grateful to most persons when made into tarts, jelly, or other 

 preparations with sugar, much of which is required to correct the natural tartness of 

 the berries ; and they are preserved dry in bottles, corked so as to exclude air ; but 

 some persons fill up the bottles with clear spring water, in which they keep fresh a 

 long time. The cranberry is cultivated in some gardens in this country for its fruit. 

 There are two species only, but several varietal forms. 



American Cranberry (Oxycoccus macrocarpus). Flowers pink, on erect, proliferous 

 branches; fruit slightly oval, bright 

 red, twice the size of currants, without 

 the remains of the calyx at the top of 

 the berry ; September ; leaves elliptic- 

 oblong, nearly flat and obtuse, glaucous 

 beneath ; North America, 1760. 



Common Cranberry (0. palustris). 

 Flowers pink, with reflexed oblong 

 segments ; pedicels terminal, one- 

 flowered ; fruit dark red ; September ; 

 leaves small, ovate, entire, acute, smooth, with revolute margins ; Britain. 



American cranberries are considered better flavoured than European ; some persons, 

 however, do not consider them equal to the Eussian cranberries. Of the American three 

 varieties are considered sufficiently distinct to receive names, which indicate the shape 

 of the fruits, namely, the Bell cranberry, Bugle cranberry, and Cherry cranberry. 



The European cranberry is also variable, some plants bearing larger fruits than 

 others. One has a dark, another a pale red skin, and some are round, whilst others 

 produce berries decidedly oval in shape, which is evidently the form taken by the 

 cranberry when subjected to cultivation. Plants are readily increased by dividing the 

 roots, the long creeping shoots frequently rooting, and by layers. 



Wherever there is a plentiful supply of water, with abundance of peat soil, no 

 difficulty need be experienced in growing cranberries. 



Fig. 37. CHEERY CBANBEEEY. FEUIT HALF NATURAL SIZE. 



