Oxycoccus macrocarpus.
repute in Europe. The latter has long been celebrated even by the
poets of antiquity*—and it is probable we possess other indigenous
species of the genus oxycoccus bearing esculent fruit. The O. his-
pidulus has been stated by some to bear berries deliciously sweet.
All that is said of the European cranberry may with great propriety
be said of the American species which greatly resembles it. Indeed,
our berry seems to be preferable to it, because Withering remarks,
that the “ European cranberries are made into tarts and are much
esteemed, but, on account of a peculiar flavour are disliked by
some." “ They may be kept,” he continues, “ for several years,
if wiped clean, and then closely corked in dry bottles, or the bottles
may be filled with water.” The American berry may, in all probability,
be preserved in like manner.
Fig. 1. A specimen of the plant culled on the 10th of July, bearing
both flowers and immature berries.
2. A ripe berry of the common form and colour; they are sometimes
quite globose or spherical, but often more oblong or
oval than this figure.
(All the size of nature.)
* Virgil, in his Second Eclogue particularly, speaks of the Vaccinium nigrum.