0045 



BILBERRY 



Family: Ericaceae 



Reproductive system: Octandry. Monogyny 



The bilberry, Vaccinium myrtillus, Linn. [Translator's note: also called 

 whortleberry; the familiar cranberry in the U.S. belongs to the same genus.], is a small 

 bush native to our region. The stems, about a foot high, are smooth, crooked, and covered 

 with branches. Leaves are ovate with slightly dentate margins. The bell-shaped pendent 

 flowers, pinkish white, are solitary in the leaf axils. The calyx is adnate and entire. The 

 corolla is narrowed at the top with five indentations. Eight stamens, inserted into the 

 receptacle, terminate in pointed anthers. The fruit is an umbilicate round berry, with four 

 or five compartments that contain many seeds. 



FLOWERS: in April and May. 



RANGE: France and a large part of Europe. 



NOMENCLATURE: Vaccinium was the name given by the ancients to a bush with 

 black fruit that seems to have been the same as our bilberry. Myrtillus is the diminutive of 

 myrtus, the myrtle, that our bush resembles in shape and foliage. German, heidelbeere, 

 heidel. Danish, blaaebar boiler. English, blea-berry. Spanish, arandano. Russian, 

 tscherniza. Polish, czernice. Bohemian, cucoritka. Colloquial French, le mauret, la 

 brimbelle, le raisin des hois, le bluet, la cousine, les macerets. 



USES. The bilberry's fruit is red to begin with but turns blackish-blue at maturity. 

 Children and shepherds enjoy eating them. They are served with milk and 



