BILBEEEY CBANBEEEY. 185 



The Bilberry blossoms were fast disappearing, though a 

 delicate little rosy urn remained here and there. Many a 

 Bilberry-gathering have I had on that moor ; one, in particular 

 I remember, when our party had picked at least a quart of the 

 berries, and an unlucky fall of the basket-bearer dissipated all 

 our store ! The berries are black and sweet, and make a 

 tolerably good tart. The leaves are shiny and serrated, and 

 the stems angular. (Yaccinium myrtillus). 



We found the Cowberry (V. vitis-idsea), that day, and my 

 young friends rejoiced over it as much as I did. It varies 

 from the Bilberry in having its flowers in clusters, the berries 

 red, and the leaves evergreen and turned back at the edges. 



The Bog Whortleberry (Y. uliginosum), with its clustering 

 stalks and black berries, we sought in vain. 



The elegant Cranberry plant (V. oxy coccus, Plate XII. , 

 fig. 2), the tiniest of evergreens, was there in full beauty, 

 its pink lily-shaped flowers raising their frail heads above the 

 peat moss. The fruit is much esteemed for tarts, and a great 

 quantity of it is imported every year from Russia and North 

 America. The produce of the plants on our own moors is very 

 small, partly because the unenclosed lands are so largely on 

 the decrease, and partly because the Cranberries are not pro- 

 duced in sufficient quantities to pay people for going far to 

 collect them. The habit of the plant is trailing, and the stems 

 are very slender. 



The same excursion was fruitful also in the HEATH tribe, the 

 one succeeding the Cranberry. The tribe takes its name from 

 its first family. 



The Cross-leaved Heath (Erica tetralix, Plate XIL, jig. 3), 

 was there, and here and there one of its rose-tinted bells was 

 open. The flowers grow in tufts at the end of the stem, and 

 the leaves are four in a whorl. 



The Fine-leaved Heath (E. cinerea), grew by its side, its purple 

 flowers arranged in whorls along with the leaves. Its blossoms 

 were more fully open than those of the Cross-leaved species, 



