MAY. 81 



rles with their rich clotted cream ; and they 

 are also the autumnal food of the moorfowl. 

 They are taken both in Poland and the Scottish 

 islands as medicine. This species is abun« 

 dant on many heaths and woodlands, hut is very 

 local, and, sometimes, is not found over half a 

 county. 



Of still lower growth than this, and scarcely 

 more than a foot hijjh, is the red whortleberry, 

 or cowberry, {F. vifis idaca,) which we can 

 hardly call "a shruo, though it wears its green 

 leaves all the winter through, and its stem does 

 not die away. Its foliage much resembles that 

 of the garden-box, and its flesh-coloured flowers 

 are found in ]\Iay and June. The berries are 

 not so well flavoured as those of the common 

 bilberry, but in Derbyshire, they are used for 

 tarts. " They are stated by Linnseus to be sent, 

 in great quantities, from West Bothnia to Stock- 

 hohn, for pickling. The Swedes, too, use a 

 jelly with all kinds of roast meat, and the cow- 

 berry jelly is considered superior to that of the 

 red currant. This plant also serves, in Norway, 

 the purpose of the box, and is used as an edg- 

 ing to the garden plot. 



One of the loveliest flowers of May, and one 

 which adorns the hedges in greatest profusion, 

 is the stitchwort, {Stellaria holostea.) It is, 

 in most parts of f'higland, a very common flower, 

 and is the companion of the violet and primrose 

 in the May copse and hedge. It grows most 

 plentifully' on loamy soils. It was formerly 

 called white-flowered grass, or all-boucs, though 



