CHAPTER XXXIII 



BERRIES OF THE HILLS 



SUMMER is gone. Already the high tops have re- 

 ceived their second coating of autumn snow, and the 

 birches and hill grasses show golden and brown 

 against the dark hillsides. It is now that the berries of the 

 hills are at their best. As yet they are untouched by the 

 frosts, and the tribe of the grouse and ptarmigan have not 

 thinned their numbers, so that everywhere one may wander 

 on the hills they are things to delight the eye by reason of 

 their rich and delicate colouring. 



Of them all perhaps the two best known species are the 

 blaeberry {Vaccinium myrtillus) and the cranberry — or more 

 properly the cowberry {Vaccinium vitis idoea). One frequently 

 finds the two berries growing profusely together, and their 

 season of ripening is nearly the same, though the blaeberry 

 is rather the earlier of the two in forming its fruit. The 

 blaeberry is one of the very few hill plants that is deciduous 

 — ^that is, it sheds its leaves with the coming of each autumn. 

 There is, to my way of thinking, no more delightful scent 

 of the high hills than the aroma of countless blaeberry plants 

 on a hot sunny day. The blaeberry, far more than the cran- 

 berry, is a true Alpine plant, and is found as high as between 

 the 3,000-foot and 4,000-foot levels, though its fruit here is 

 mdifferent. The fruit of the blaeberry is of a dark blue 

 colour. It is comparatively sweet to the taste, and the only 

 berry with which it is likely to be confused is the crowberry 

 (Empetrum nigrum), but whereas the leaves of the blaeberry 

 are deciduous and delicate, those of the crowberry are heath- 

 like and sturdy. 



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