174 DESCRIPTIVE BOTANY. 



tou counties, iu New Jersey, iu the Beaver Dam Company's plautatious, and 

 those of the Hon. Ephraim P. Empson at Collier's Mills, which are among the 

 most extensive, and are fair specimens of the others, is as follows : The loca- 

 tion is selected along a small stream, whose valley is of some width and the 

 adjacent banks of which are high enough to allow flooding by constructing a 

 low dam. The ground is then cleared of the trees and shrubbery, roots and 

 all. These are piled in heaps, and as soon as dry they are burned, and the ashes 

 are spread. The whole is then covered with sand, into which the plants are set 

 in rows, so that the following year they may be kept free from weeds with the 

 hoe. When the plants begin to fruit they are flooded for several months, 

 beginning in November, and in May the water is let off. In September pick- 

 ing commences, Avhich is paid for by the crate, or bushel, the price varying 

 from forty to sixty cents a crate. The owners of the bogs, as the plantations 

 are called, erect cabins on or near the grounds to accommodate the pickers, 

 who come from far and near; old men and women, girls and boys, flock to 

 the cranberry harvest. The quantity picked in a day varies from one crate 

 to five ; the women and young girls are the most dexterous, and frequently 

 earn as much as two and a half dollars a day when the fruit is abundant. 



Use. — The cranberry has a sharp, acid, and astringent taste, in a raw state. 

 Cooking destroys the astringency, but does not neutralize the acid. It is a 

 favorite sauce with poultry and game, and is largely used for jellies and pre- 

 serves. The ripe fruit can be kept for a long time in vessels of water tightly 

 sealed. It may be kept for any length of time immersed in molasses, and 

 kept in a uniform and cool temperature. Large quantities are shipped to 

 France, where the berries are used in the manufacture of colors. 



Marts. — The great market for cranberries is NeAV York City. The prices 

 have ranged during the last ten years from two to five dollars a crate or 

 bushel. 



Order XXXIII. SAPOTACEJE. 



Flowers perfect, regular, axillary ; caljTc 4-8-partefl ; corolla with 

 united petals, hypogynous, 4-8-lobed, imbricated in the bud ; stamens 

 on the corolla, fertile ones equalling number of, and opposite to, the 

 corolla-lobes ; ovary several-celled ; style cylindrical ; stigma acute or 

 capitellate ; ovules solitary, in the cells. Fruit a berry, with one to 

 many cells. Seeds with a bony testa, embryo large. Leaves alternate, 

 entire, and coriaceous ; stipules wanting or falling early. Trees or 

 shrubs, with milky juice and stellate leaves. 



No. of genera, 26 ; species, 325. Tropical or subtropical. 



DICHOPSIS, Thu. Cal}^s 6f-parted in two series, outer row valvate ; 

 corolla 6-lobed, usually acute ; stamens 12, attached to the base of the 

 corolla, every alternate one shorter ; anthers lanceolate ; ovarium vil- 

 lous, 6-celled ; style awl-shaped. Large trees. Leaves leathery, clothed 

 underneath with rusty-yellow, short, woolly, pubescence. Flowers 

 axillary, stalked. 



D. gutta, Bentley and T. (Gutta Percha.) Trunk 60 to 70 feet high, 2 to 3 

 feet in diameter ; bark rough ; twigs tomentose. Leaves alternate ; stipules 

 deciduous ; petioles long, stout, thickened at the base ; blade obovate, oblong, 

 short, acuminate, tapering at the base, entire; margin revolute, glabrous 



