22 ENGLISH BOTANY. 
berries will keep for several years, or they will keep in casks of water, as adopted in 
America. Pallas informs lis that in Russia the bankers take advantage of the sharp 
acid of the fruit to whiten their silver money, which they boil in the juice, and so get 
rid of superficial particles of the copper alloy. In Sweden the same thing is done to 
whiten silver plate. In Siberia ropes are made of the long slender stems of the plant. 
The Cranberry may easily be cultivated wherever a supply of water exists. It must 
be planted in a layer of black peat, rising a little above the surface of the water, which 
should have access to the roots of the plant, as it delights in wet bogs. On the margin 
of a pond, or by a slow stream, where the water is only a few inches deep, a suitable 
soil may easily be formed by laying peat-earth over stones or clay, and the Cranberries 
may be planted or sown on the moist surface. Every little bit of stem will easily 
strike root, so that the propagation of the plant by layers or cuttings is very easy. 
On sandy peat-soil it gi*ows very luxuriantly, and it is said that the fruit produced 
by cultivation is of a better flavour than that gathered from the wild bushes. 
Section II.— VITIS-IDiEA. Tournef. 
Corolla bell-shaped, divided one-third of the way down or less 
into 5 recurved lobes. Elowers in short bracteate nodding racemes. 
Filaments hairy. Anthers not awned. Leaves evergreen. 
SPECIES II.— VAC CINIUM VITIS-ID^ A. Linru 
Plate DCCCLXXVII. 
Reich. Ic. Fl. Germ, et Helv. Vol. XVII. Tab. MCLXVIII. Fig. 1. 
Billot, Fl. Gall, et Germ. Exsicc. No. 1708. 
Hootstock creeping. Stems erect or ascending, stiff, slightly 
branched. Leaves very shortly stalked, oblanceolate or obovate, 
waved, with very narrow revolute margins, obtuse, deep shining- 
green above, paler and glandular - punctate but not reticulate- 
veined beneath, glabrous. Flowers drooping, 5 to 12 together, in 
short drooping racemes at the extremity of the brandies. Pedicels 
very short, curved, stout, pubescent, springing from the axils of 
ovate-hooded bracts, and with 1 or 2 similar but smaller bracteoles 
about the middle. Calyx 4-tootbed, with the segments broadly- 
ovate, ciliated. Corolla campanulate, with 4 ovate reflexed seg- 
ments, about one-third the length of the whole corolla. Anther- 
cells produced into 2 long tubes, with pores at the apex, without 
awns. Berry red. 
On heaths and heathy woods. Not uncommon in the North 
of England and Scotland, extending from Glamorgan, Worcester, 
Warwick, and Notts, North to the Hebrides and Sutherland. 
England, Scotland, Ireland. Shrub. Summer. 
