278 VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES. 



" With rich conserve of Visna cherries, 

 Of orange flowers, and of those berries 

 That, wild and fresh, the young gazelles 

 Feed on in Erac's rocky dells."* 



In more northern countries the cloud-berry is still 

 more abundant, so much so as to justify the enco- 

 mium passed on it by the poet, while speaking of 

 those dreary lands: 



" Ever enduring snows, perpetual shades 



Of darkness, would congeal the living blood, 

 Did not the arctic tract spontaneous yield 

 A cheering purple berry, big with wine." 



In the northern parts of Sweden and Norway, and 

 in Lapland, even to the North Cape, the cloud-berry 

 grows in such abundance as to be an article of ex- 

 tensive commerce. Great quantities of it are sent 

 every autumn to the Swedish capital, and to the 

 southern parts of that country, where they are used 

 in a variety of ways; and, in fact, it forms the prin- 

 cipal fruit that they have. 



Dr. Clarke notices the value of this berry in his 

 travels : " In woods, and moist situations near the 

 river, we found the Rubus chamcemorus still in flower. 

 The Swedes call it Hiortron; the Laplanders give it 

 the name of Latoch; the inhabitants of Westro- 

 Bothnia call it Snotter; and in Norway its appella- 

 tion is Multebaear. The same plant is found upon 

 some of the highest mountains, and in some of the 

 peat -bogs of the north of England; on which ac- 

 count, perhaps, it is called cloud-berry in our island: 

 but it is not likely that its fruit ever attains the same 

 degree of maturity and perfection in Great Britain 

 as in Lapland, where the sun acts with such power 

 during the summer. Its medicinal properties have 

 certainly been overlooked, owing, perhaps, either to 

 this circumstance, or to its rarity in Great Britain. 



* Moore's Lalla Rookh. 



