botanically arranged. 439 



The Black Whortleberry. The Bilberry or Blueberry. These 

 shrubs are low when they grow on high land, but tall in 

 swamps. The White Whortleberry. The Red Whortleberry. 

 The fruit of these species are agreeable to children, either eaten 

 by themselves, or in milk, or in tarts and jellies. The Choke 

 Whortleberry. The fruit is unpalatable ; but its great degree 

 of astringency may, one day or other, recommend it to the at- 

 tention of physicians. The Craneberry, or Mossberry. These 

 berries make an agreeable tart. By drying them a little in the 

 sun, and then putting them in a close vessel, or stopping them 

 up in dry bottles, they may be kept good for many years. 



TRIGYNIA. 

 POLYGONUM. Linn. Gen. Plant. 445. 

 Polygonum caule simplicissimo monostachyo, foliis ovatis in 

 i>etiolum decurrentibus. Syst. Nat. 



BISTORT. Snakeweed. Blossoms red. In wet meadows. 

 August. 



The root is said to be one of the strongest vegetable astrin- 

 gents. 



Polygonum floribus hexandris semidigynis, foliis lanceo- 

 latisy stipulis submuticis. Syst. Nat. 



ARSMART. Water Pepper. Blossoms white. Common 

 both in dry and moist land. August. 



It occasions severe smarting when rubbed on the flesh. The 

 taste is acrid and burning. It dyes wool yellow. Dr. Wither- 

 ing says, it cures little aphthous ulcers in the mouth. — That 

 the ashes mixed with soft soap is a nostrum, in a few hands, 

 for dissolving the stone in the bladder ; but perhaps not pre- 

 ferable to other caustic preparations of the vegetable alkali. 



Polygonum 



