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HUCKLEBERRY AS AN ENGLISH PLANT-NAME 113 



situated on the Lower Greensand formation near Woburn, which 

 extends into the counties of Beds and Bucks. My recollections go 

 back to the early fifties, when I used to visit some relations I had 

 in that neighbourhood, and one of my earliest memories is hearing 

 of the adders which used to be such a source of apprehension to 

 those going huckleberrying in Woburn woods, as related to me by 

 my grandmother as one of the events of her early childhood. This 

 carries back the use of the name for at least a century. Gipsies 

 used to bring the berries round to the neighbouring villages for 

 sale under the name of huckleberries. I have also heard my rela- 

 tive the late Mr. Smith, of Woolston, the well-known writer to The 

 Times in the fifties on agricultural matters, refer nearly fifty years 

 ago to the huckleberries in Brickhilll woods. Living people in the 

 neighbourhood who are now over eighty years of age tell me that 

 they have never heard any other name. Miss Flora Russell wrote 

 to her cousin the Eev. Henry Russell, who knows the district inti- 

 mately, and he replied, " Yes, huckleberries was always the local 

 name of bilberries in the Woburn district. Emigrants went from 

 there to America and settled in Massachusetts, where there is now a 

 flourishing little town called Woburn, much frequented by wealthy 

 Bostonians. ,, The Duke of Bedford also kindly had inquiries made, 

 and Mr. R. E. Prothero wrote in reply: " As to the local use of 

 the word ■ Huckleberry ' for the fruit generally known as Whortle- 

 berry, I thought the best plan would be to have the applications for 

 leave to pick them analysed. The result is that, out of one 

 hundred and ten applications, one hundred and nine were for leave 

 to pick * huckleberries,' and the one appplicant who used the word 

 1 Whortleberry ■ was not a native of the district. Two old women, 

 (seventy-five and seventy-three) have also been asked as to the use 

 of the word, and both reply that they have never known the fruit 

 called by any other name than 'Huckleberry.' It may be of 

 interest to you to be reminded that Bedfordshire contributed largely 

 to the number of early settlers in the United States ; Washingtons 

 came from the Northants border, and the stars and stripes are the 

 arms of their ancestors. Emerson's family came from Odell, and in 

 the State of Massachusetts there is a Woburn — also a Bedford and 

 a New Bedford — place-names given by the early settlers." In 

 answer to my inquiry Mr. A. H. Linscott, the Mayor of Woburn, 

 Mass., U.S.A., writes: "Huckleberries are very common in this 

 locality. They have always been found here, and grow in great 

 abundance. The bushes are low and spreading, the berries very 

 dark." I therefore venture to contend that " Huckleberry " is a 

 geuuiue British name for V. Myrtitlus; that it has for a very 

 lengthy period been used over a small area of the Midlands to dis- 

 tinguish it ; and that, instead of being an American corruption of 

 the word whortleberry, it was conveyed by the early English 

 settlers to America, and transferred by them to other species 

 having a superficial resemblance. Naturally, as the settlers spread 

 over the country, the name became a generic one. Religious diffi- 

 culties led to a large migration from Bucks and Beds, historically a 

 home of the Puritans; Penn — a well-known Buckinghamshire name 



Journal of Botany. — Vol. 45. [March, 1907.] K 



