116 



CRANBERRY .-VACCINtUM. 



Natural order, Bicornes. A genus of the Octandria 

 Monogynia class. 



THIS fruit, which is so much esteemed in tarts, or with 

 cream, is a native of England, and is found growing in 

 the peaty bogs of Sussex, Cumberland, Norfolk, Lan- 

 cashire, and in other marshy lands. Gerard calls the fruit 

 fen-berries : " they grow, "says he, " in fennie places, in 

 Cheshire and Staffordshire, where I have found them in 

 great plentie." Valerius Cordus called them oxycoccon ; 

 the Dutch term them fen grapes. 



They are thought to have derived the name of cran- 

 berry from the peduncles being crooked at the top, and, 

 before the expansion of the flower, resembling the head 

 and neck of a crane. 



Dr. Withering states, that at Longton, in Cumberland, 

 there is a considerable traffic carried on in cranberries ; 

 that on the market-days, during the gathering season, the 

 sale of these berries amounts to from twenty to thirty 

 pounds sterling per day. Many people in that neighbour- 

 hood make wine from cranberries; but never having 

 tasted this liquor, we can give no account of its quality. 

 The English cranberries, which are preserved in bottles 

 with no other care than keeping them dry, are very supe- 

 rior to those large cranberries imported from the northern 

 parts of America, which are now so common in the shops 

 of London. These berries, being packed in large casks 

 must undergo a fermentation during the voyage, whict 



