22 ENGLISH BOTANY. 



berries will keep for several years, or they will keep in casks of water, as adopted in 

 America. Pallas informs lis that in Russia the bankers take advantage of the sharp 

 acid of the fruit to whiten their silver money, which they boil in the juice, and so get 

 rid of superficial particles of the copper alloy. In Sweden the same thing is done to 

 whiten silver plate. In Siberia ropes are made of the long slender stems of the plant. 

 The Cranberry may easily be cultivated wherever a supply of water exists. It must 

 be planted in a layer of black peat, rising a little above the surface of the water, which 

 should have access to the roots of the plant, as it delights in wet bogs. On the margin 

 of a pond, or by a slow stream, where the water is only a few inches deep, a suitable 

 soil may easily be formed by laying peat-earth over stones or clay, and the Cranberries 

 may be planted or sown on the moist surface. Every little bit of stem will easily 

 strike root, so that the propagation of the plant by layers or cuttings is very easy. 

 On sandy peat-soil it grows very luxuriantly, and it is said that the fruit produced 

 by cultivation is of a better flavour than that gathered from the wild bushes. 



Section II.— ViTIS-ID^A. Tourncf. 



Corolla bell-shaped, divided one-third of the way down or less 

 into 5 recurved lobes. Flowers in short bracteate nodding racemes. 

 Filaments hairy. Anthers not awned. Leaves evergreen. 



SPECIES II.— VACCINIUM VITIS-ID^JA. Linn. 



Plate DCCCLXXVII. 



Reich. Ic. Fl. Germ, et Helv. Vol. XVII. Tab. MCLXVIII. Fig. 1. 

 Billot, Fl. Gall, et Germ. Exsicc. No. 1708. 



Rootstock creeping. Stems erect or ascending, stiff, slightly 

 branched. Leaves very shortly stalked, oblanceolate or obovate, 

 waved, witb very narrow revolute margins, obtnse, deep shining- 

 green above, paler and glandular - punctate but not reticulate- 

 veined beneath, glabrous. Flowers drooping, 5 to 12 together, in 

 short drooping racemes at the extremity of the branches. Pedicels 

 very short, curved, stout, pubescent, springing from the axils of 

 ovate-hooded bracts, and with 1 or 2 similar but smaller bract roles 

 about the middle. Calyx -i-toothed, with the segments broadly- 

 ovate, ciliated. Corolla campanulate, with 4 ovate reflexed 

 ments, about one-third the length of the whole corolla. Anther- 

 cells produced into 2 long tubes, with pores at the apex, without 

 awns. Berry red. 



On heaths and heathy woods. Not uncommon in the North 

 of England and Scotland, extending from Glamorgan, "Worcester, 

 "Warwick, and Notts, North to the Hebrides and Sutherland. 



England, Scotland, Ireland. Shrub. Summer. 



