120 fkbJ=(!Fit(jlanti5 Parities. 



feed upon them, is a fmall trayling Plant that grows in 

 Salt Marfhes that are over-grown with Mofs; the tender 

 Branches (which are reddifh) run out in great length, 

 lying flat on the ground, where at diftances, they take 

 Root, over-fpreading fometimes half a fcore Acres, fome- 

 times in fmall patches of about a Rood or the like; the 

 Leaves are like Box, but greener, thick and glittering; the 

 Bloffoms are very like the Flowers of \f>6] our Englijh 

 Night Shade, after which fucceed the Berries, hanging by 

 long fmall foot ftalks, no bigger than a hair; at firft they 

 are of a pale yellow Colour, afterwards red, and as big as 

 a Cherry; fome perfectly round, others Oval, all of them 

 hollow, of a fower aftringent tafte; they are ripe in 

 Anguji and September} 



For the Scurvy. 

 They are excellent againft the Scurvy. 



1 Vaccinium macrocarpum, Ait. Our author seems not to have known the 

 European cranberry ( V. oxycoccus, L., the marish-wortes, or fenne-berries, of 

 Gerard, p. 1419) ; which is also found in our cold bogs, especially upon mountains. 

 This is called by Sir W. J. Hooker (Br. Fl., vol. i. p. 178), "far superior to the 

 foreign V. macrocarpon ; " but, from Gerard's account, it should appear that it 

 was formerly much less thought of in England than was ours (according to Josse- 

 lyn) here, by both Indians and English. Linnaeus speaks of the European fruit 

 in much the same way, in 1737, in his Flora of Lapland, where he says, " Baccce 

 lice a JLapponibus in usum cibarium ?ioji vocantur, nee facile ab aliis natiouibus, 

 cum nimis acidce sint" (Fl. Lapp., p. 145): but corrects this in a paper on the 

 esculent plants of Sweden, in 1752; asking, not without animation, " Harum vero 

 cum saccharo praparata gelatina, quid in mensis nostris jucundiusf " (Amsen. 

 Acad., t. iii. p. 86.) Our American cranberry was probably the " sasemineash — 

 another sharp, cooling fruit, growing in fresh waters all the winter; excellent in 

 conserve against fevers" — of R. Williams, Key, /. c, p. 221. — Compare Masimin, 

 rendered [fruits] " rouges pet 'its." — Hastes' Did., Abnaki, I. c, p. 460. 



