76 LAWSON — MONOGRAPH OF ERICACE^. 



throughout the Provinces of Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, New 

 Brunswick, Newfoundland, Labrador, Manitoba, and the Northern 

 and Western regions so long occupied by the Hudson's Bay traders, 

 the distribution of the various species has been ascertained with 

 some degree of precision from the southern boundary of the 

 Dominion northwards to the arctic shores, and westward to the 

 Rocky Mountains, but in regard to the Pacific side there was still 

 great want of information. The Ericaceous Flora of the Pacific 

 Coast shows in some respects a closer affinity than that of the 

 Atlantic to Asiatic and European forms ; but on the other hand a 

 large number of our Dominion species belong to the old arctic 

 flora that encircles the northern polar regions. 



Gaylussacia resinosa is our common Black Huckleberry, widely 

 diffused over the Dominion, but nowhere so abundant or so well 

 known as in Nova Scotia. Vaccinium macrocarpum is the Ameri- 

 can Cranberry, of which several varieties are now in cultivation ; 

 it abounds in the swamps of Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, Sable 

 Island, around the Gulf Shores, and generally throughout New 

 Brunswick, Quebec and Ontario, stretching westward through 

 British territory to the Pacific, where its use is known, although 

 quite absent from the prairie country of the Western States. V. 

 Pennsylvanicum and corymbosum yield the well known blue berries. 

 Vitis Id^ea, a common form in Northern Europe, is frequent on 

 hills on both sides of the Lower St. Lawrence, and around the 

 Gulf Shores, Anticosti, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, New Bruns- 

 wick, &c., extending north to 70^ and west to Sitka. In Europe 

 the use of its berry is not known ; in New England Prof. Gray 

 speaks of it as barely edible, and Mr. Wood also, in his American 

 Elora characterizes it as mealy and sour. All that is true of it in 

 the raw state, but it is nevertheless one of our very best berries for 

 cooking, making a delicious preserve, and used all over the Pro- 

 vince under the name of Cowberry. It is extensively used also 

 throughout Pupert's Land, where it is the Cranberry, and according 

 to Richardson " excellent for every purpose to which a cranberry 

 can be applied," being a great resource to the Dog ribs and Hare 

 Indians, as well as to Europeans. In Greenland, the Danish resi- 

 dents also use it as a preserve, according to P. Brown secundus, in 



