Scottish horticulturists have tried to raise it from the seed, and have, we believe, obtained plants; though the fruit, when they bore any, has been tasteless, and the plants themselves are preserved alive with difficulty. The Arctic berry, which grows in the wildest and most exposed districts of Lapland, sometimes offered to Linnæus the only food which he found in his perilous journey in those dreary regions; and he thus speaks of it with much feeling :“I should be ungrateful towards this beneficent plant, which often, when I was almost prostrate with hunger and fatigue, restored me with the vinous nectar of its berries, did I not bestow on it a full description *"

THE CLOUD-BERRY-Rubus chamamorus.

This is another mountainous berry, which it is exceedingly difficult to cultivate. A single berry grows on the top of the stem. These berries are much

more numerous than the former, though, like them, they are found only in very elevated and exposed situations-on the sides of the loftiest mountains in Scotland. The berries are about the size of small strawberries, and the flavour is exceedingly fine, superior to that of any of the strawberries, as found wild in this country, and having a sharpness which does not belong even to the best of those which are cultivated. They remain in season for about a month; and, during that time, the Highlanders, in the districts where they are found, (for they are by no means generally diffused over the Highlands,) collect them in considerable quantities, and make them into excellent preserves. In the east, as well as the north, the wild berries of the mountains and vallies, which nature offers in such abundance for a short season, are thus used by man:

* Flora Lapponica.

"With rich conserve of Visna cherries,
Of orange flowers, and of those berries
That, wild and fresh, the young gazelles
Feed on in Erac's rocky dells*."

In more northern countries the cloud-berry is still more abundant, so much so as to justify the encomium passed on it by the poet, while speaking of those dreary lands :

"Ever enduring snows, perpetual shades

Of darkness, would congeal the living blood,
Did not the arctic tract spontaneous yield
A cheering purple berry, big with wine."

In the northern parts of Sweden and Norway, and in Lapland, even to the North Cape, the cloud-berry grows in such abundance as to be an article of extensive commerce. Great quantities of it are sent every autumn to the Swedish capital, and to the southern parts of that country, where they are used in a variety of ways; and, in fact, it forms the principal fruit that they have.

Dr. Clarke notices the value of this berry in his travels:-" In woods, and moist situations near the river, we found the Rubus chamæmorus still in flower. The Swedes call it Hiortron; the Laplanders give it the name of Latoch; the inhabitants of WestroBothnia call it Snotter; and in Norway its appellation is Multebæar. The same plant is found upon some of the highest mountains, and in some of the peat-bogs of the north of England; on which account, perhaps, it is called cloud-berry in our island: but it is not likely that its fruit ever attains the same degree of maturity and perfection in Great Britain as in Lapland, where the sun acts with such power during the summer. Its medicinal properties have certainly been overlooked, owing, perhaps, either to this circumstance, or to its rarity in Great Britain.

Moore's Lalla Rookh.

The fruit is sent in immense quantities, in autumn, from all the north of the gulph of Bothnia to Stockholm, where it is used for sauces, and in making vinegar*."

Our English traveller, as appears by the following passage, was under greater obligations to the cloudberry than the Swedish naturalist to the other species of Arctic fruit :

"Mr. Grape's children came into the room, bringing with them two or three gallons of the fruit of the cloud-berry, or Rubus chamamorus. This plant grows so abundantly near the river, that it is easy to gather bushels of the fruit. As the large berry ripens, which is as big as the top of a man's thumb, its colour, at first scarlet, becomes yellow. When eaten with sugar and cream, it is cooling and delicious, and tastes like the large American hautboy-strawberries. Little did the author dream of the blessed effects he was to experience by tasting of the offering brought by these little children; who, proud of having their gifts accepted, would gladly run and gather daily a fresh supply; which was as often blended with cream and sugar by the hands of their mother; until at last he perceived that his fever rapidly abated; his spirits and his appetite returned; and, when, sinking under a disorder so obstinate that it seemed to be incurable, the blessings of health were restored to him, where he had reason to believe he should

have found his grave. The symptoms of amendment were almost instantaneous after eating of these berries t."

THE BILBERRY, or BLEABERRY--Vaccinium myrtillus.

This berry grows plentifully on heaths and waste places; and though it does not live in situations as

Clarke's Travels, vol. ix. pp. 371, 2. + Ibid. p. 470, 1,

cold as those that have been mentioned, it is very hardy. It is a handsome berry, with a delicate bloom when in perfection; but it is tender, and, when kept for some time, ferments. In some of the pine forests in Scotland it grows to the height of three feet; and there are places where the pedestrian can pull handfuls of berries as large as the common black currant of the gardens.

Two other species of Vaccinium, the black whortleberry, and the red (the cranberry) are common enough in some parts of this country. One, if not both of these, grows most readily in moist situations, such as the dry patches in peat-bogs. Tusser mentions" hurtil-berries" amongst the cultivated fruits of his time. These were, perhaps, confounded with the fruit of the brambles. "Dewberries" (though supposed by some to be gooseberries) were formerly amongst the delicacies of fruit, if we may judge from the celebrated passage in Midsummer's Night's Dream:

"Feed him with apricocks and dewberries,

With purple grapes, green figs, and mulberries."

The red cranberry (Vaccinium vitis idæa), of which the berries are excellent, has borne fruit abundantly under cultivation. The berries of the Pennsylvanian Vaccinium are very ornamental.

This genus of berries is very abundant in North America, and also in the northern parts of Russia. The American cranberry (Vaccinium macrocarpon) forms a considerable article of commerce; and, as does not appear to be the case with some others of the genus, it may be cultivated to advantage on the margins of ponds, and in other moist situations. The importation of cranberries to this country is about 30,000 gallons annually, the duty being sixpence per gallon. This species has been grown in England.

GUALTHERIA SHALLON.

It

This is a new and interesting berry, recently found on the north-west coast of America. Mr. D. Douglas, an indefatigable naturalist, whom we have. already mentioned in the Part on Timber Trees, sent the seeds of this plant home in 1825 to the Horticultural Society, in the discharge of his duty as collector to that establishment. These plants, now growing in the gardens of the Horticultural Society, promise remarkably well; and if the fruit shall equal in size that of their preserved specimen, the Gualtheria will be among the handsomest of the berries. Mr. Douglas has thus described the Gualtheria Shallon in that pleasing work, Loddiges' Botanical Cabinet:' "In its natural state it is a most graceful spreading shrub, from four to ten feet high, and exceeding that, when growing on stumps of decayed pines. flowers from April through the summer; and the fruit, which is good, is ripe from July to October. It is very abundant, and much esteemed by the inhabitants, who dry it in the sun, and sometimes make it into a kind of cake, for winter use. It will, I doubt not, become a valuable addition to the dessert, and, probably, be useful for making wine, as it possesses a great portion of saccharine jelly. I have seen it from forty to forty-five degrees north latitude; and, according to Mr. Menzies, who discovered it, and Dr. Scouler, it is plentiful at Nootka Sound. It is exclusively confined to the mountainous, woody parts of the coast, being rarely seen above one hundred miles from it, or beyond the influence of the sea breeze. The young shoots are the favourite winter food of the elk and other kinds of deer."