62 Oxycoccus macro car pus. 



repute in Europe. The latter has long been celebrated even by the 

 poets of antiquity* — and it is probable we possess other indigenous 

 species of the genus oxycoccus bearing esculent fruit. The O. his 

 pidulus has been stated by some to bear berries deliciously sweet. 

 All that is said of the European cranberry may with great propriety 

 be said of the American species which greatly resembles it. Indeed, 

 our berry seems to be preferable to it, because Withering remarks, 

 that the " European cranberries are made into tarts and are much 

 esteemed, but, on account of a peculiar flavour are disliked by 

 some." " They may be kept," he continues, " for several years, 

 if wiped clean, and then closely corked in dry bottles, or the bottles 

 may be filled with water." The American berry may, in all pro- 

 bability, be preserved in like manner. 



Fig. l. A specimen of the plant culled on the 10th of July, bearing 

 both flowers and immature berries. 



2. A ripe berry of the common form and colour ; they are some- 

 times quite globose or spherical, but often more oblong or 

 oval than this figure. 



(All the size of nature.) 



* Virgil, in his Second Eclogue particularly, speaks of the Vaccinium nigrum. 



