Sel. p. 35.— Baines’ FI. of Yorksli. p. 53.— Mack. Catal. of PI. of Irel. p. 37 ; FI. 
Hibern. p. 136. — Vaccinia palustria , Johnson’s Gerardo, p. 1419. 
Localities. — In watery turfy bogs, among mosses. Common in the North of 
England, as well as in the East, as in Lincolnshire, and the neighbouring part of 
Norfolk; and also in WALES, SCOTLAND, and IRELAND. 
Shrub. — Flowers in May and June. 
Roots creeping, with many long fibres. Stems straggling, slen- 
der, wiry, from 6 to 10 inches long, trailing and creeping, smooth, 
branched, leafy, with a deciduous cuticle. Leaves alternate, on 
very short petioles, egg-shaped, or somewhat heart-shaped, pointed, 
smooth, entire, their margins revolute; green and glossy above; 
glaucous beneath. Flowers very elegant, drooping, of a pink or 
rose-colour, each on a simple, red, slightly hoary peduncle, about 
an inch long, several together at the end of each branch, bearing a 
few minute scattered bracteas below the middle. Calyx (see figs. 
2 & 3) small, coloured, smooth, in 4, blunt, slightly fringed, seg- 
ments. Corolla (in all the specimens I have examined) of 4 dis- 
tinct, reflexed petals, which fall off separately. Filaments (see figs. 
1 & 2.) flat, incurved, purple, with fringed margins. Anthers up- 
right, prominent, yellow, with two long tubular points, but no horns. 
Berries nearly globular, pale red spotted with purple in an early 
state, when fully ripe of a deep red. 
A low, evergreen, trailing shrub, seldom rising higher than three or four in- 
ches. As well as of Europe, it is also a native on the boggy mountains of North 
America, from Canada to Pensylvania, and in the Island of Oonalashka. Pallas 
says it is also found in turfy bogs throughout the whole of Siberia, as far as the 
Northern Ocean. In Russia, and in some parts of Sweden, the long thread- 
shaped shoots are collected in the Spring, after most of the leaves have dropped 
off, and are dried, and twisted into ropes, which are used to tie on the thatch of 
houses, and even for harnessing horses. The berries are powerfully acid and 
astringent, and they have a peculiar flavour, which is agreeable to some, though 
disliked by others, Immersion in water for some hours is said to remove their 
disagreeable bitterness. In Sweden and Russia they are used for tarts and 
sweetmeats, and the expressed juice is considered efficacious in fevers. Pallas 
informs us, that bankers in Russia make use of the fruit for whitening their silver 
money, which they do by boiling it in the juice, when the sharp acid dissolves 
the superficial particles of the copper alloy. The same thing is done in Sweden 
to whiten silver plate. In Britain, almost the only use to which the berries are 
applied, is that of making tarts ; and not long since Cranberries from Lincoln- 
shire, and the north-west corner of Norfolk, were sold in the streets of Norwich 
by cart- loads; but the extensive inclosures have now, in many parts, destroyed 
and drained their native bogs, and rendered them more scarce in a wild state. It 
is recorded by Lightfoot, (in his Flora Scotica, published in 1789,) that at 
Longtown on the borders of Cumberland, they were made so considerable an 
article of commerce, that at the season when they were ripe, not less than 20 or 
30 pounds worth were sold by the poor people each market-day, for five or six 
weeks together, which were afterwards dispersed over different parts of the king- 
dom, for making Cranberry -tarts. England is now chiefly supplied with Cran- 
berries from Russia and Sweden, and with the sort produced by O. macrocarpus 
from N. America. The total quantity imported from both countries, according 
to M'Culloch, is from 30,000 to 35,000 gallons annually. (See Loud. Arb. 
et Frutic. Brit. p. 1169). 
Goats eat the plant ; cows, sheep, and horses refuse it. 
Hysterium rnelaleucum is sometimes parasitical on the leaves. 
For the plant from which the drawing for the accompanying plate 
was made, I am indebted to the kindness of Mr. J. Thompson, of 
Crowhall Mill, Northumberland. 
