120 
feed upon them, is a fmall trayling Plant that grows in 
Salt Marfhes that are over-grown with Mofs; the tender 
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 
BlofToms are very like the Flowers of [66] our EngliJJi 
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 tafle; they are ripe in 
Augujl and September} 
For the Scurvy. 
They are excellent againft the Scurvy. 
1 Vaccinium macrocatfum, 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 
hce a Lapponibus in usum cibarium non vocantur, nec facile ab aliis nationibus, 
cum nimis acida? 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 prceparata gelatina, quid in mentis nostris jucundiusf " (Amasn. 
Acad., t. iii. p. S6.) Our American cranberry was probably the " sasemineask — 
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 pctits." — Rasles' Did., Abnaki, I. r., p. 460. 
Branches 
run out in great length, 
