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CRANBERRIES.-(Oxycoccus macrocarpus.)

A Low trailing vine, an indigenous fruit, growing wild in bogs and meadows. The berry has a very acid taste, and is much used in pies, puddings, tarts, preserves, &c. The cranberry is a plant of easy culture; and with but little expense, not a doubt exists that meadows which are now barren wastes, or yield nothing but coarse herbage, might be converted into profitable cranberry fields. According to Loudon, Sir Joseph Banks, who obtained this plant from America, raised in 1831, on a square of eighteen feet each way, three and a half Winchester bushels, which is at the rate of four hundred and sixty bushels to the acre. A man with a cranberry rake will in a good cranberry meadow, gather from twenty to fifty bushels in a day; any meadow will answer; Capt. Henry Hall of Barnstable, has cultivated the cranberry twenty years. They grow well on sandy bogs after draining; if the bogs are covered with brush it is removed, but it is not necessary to remove the rushes, as the strong roots of the cranberry soon overpower them. It would be well if previous to planting, the land could be ploughed; but Capt. Hall usually spreads on beach sand and digs holes four feet asunder each way, the same distance as for corn; the holes are, however, deeper. Into these holes, sods of cranberry roots are planted, and in the space of three years the whole ground is covered. The planting is usually performed in autumn. Mr F. A. Hayden, of Lincoln, Mass. is stated to have gathered from his farm, in 1830, four hundred bushels of cranberries, which brought him in Boston market $400. [New England Farmer, vol. IX. No. 18.] Any dry soil with a mixture of bog earth will, it is said, produce abundant crops.

CRANBERRY VIBURNUM.-(V. oxycoccum.)

THE cranberry tree or shrub, rises to a very moderate height, its fruit is a berry about the size of a cranberry, of

a bright red color, and very austere taste. They are valuable for pies, tarts, preserves, &c. The tree is propaga

ted by layers, and suckers or seeds.

ELDER.(Sambucus nigra.)

A low bushy tree, of an ornamental appearance; its bark is smooth and gray, becoming rough by age; leaves pinnate; the flowers in terminating cymes; the berries black and abundant, of a sweet but not agreeable flavor; the tree and its leaves are narcotic. Noxious insects avoid it.

USES. Although the berries are deemed poisonous to poultry generally, yet they are employed in the manufacture of an excellent, powerful and enlivening wine, remarkably wholesome. But the wine of white elder berries is said to resemble grape wine. A syrup and cordial are also prepared from the berries; and in Germany a very pure and strong spirit is said to be distilled from the fruit. The inner green bark is said to be an ingredient in black dye. And Professor Martyn, according to Loudon, has stated that the tree is a whole magazine of physic to rustic practitioners, nor is it quite neglected by more regular ones. Fruit trees, plants, &c. whipped with the fresh branches, are effectually secured from the depredations of noxious insects. The wood of old trees is hard and fine grained, and takes a fine polish, and is used by turners as a substitute for box wood.

MEDLAR.-(Mespilus Germanica.)

A low spreading tree; the branches are woolly; the leaves are oval, lanceolate, serrate and woolly towards their points. The fruit is round or turbinate, the size that of a plum. The pulp is thick and contains five wrinkled stones. An ornamental shrub, when in bloom, and a native of the south of Europe.

USES.

The fruit is much esteemed by some; but it is never eaten till ameliorated by frost and in a state of decay.

VARIETIES.

NOTTINGHAM MEDLAR. Loudon.

A fruit of a quick and pungent taste. GERMAN MEDLAR, or Dutch Medlar.

A low, crooked, deformed tree, with very large leaves, entire, and downy beneath; the flowers are very large; the fruit very large, somewhat resembling an apple in shape. This variety is the largest of the medlars and is deemed the best.

SOIL AND CULTIVATION. - Raised by seeds, planted while fresh and in autumn; also by layers or by grafting and inoculating, either on the medlar or on the quince, the hawthorn or the pear. They require a loamy, rich soil, rather moist than dry, on a dry subsoil.

MOUNTAIN ASH.-(Sorbus aucuparia.)

THIS tree rises erect in a beautiful pyramidal form to the height of twentyfive or thirty feet; the leaves are pinnate; the flowers are white, in corymbs; the fruit is round, of a fine coral red. The berries of this tree are eaten, according to Loudon, in some parts of Scotland and Wales. They are also used for preserving; they are also stated to afford an agreeable fermented liquor; and by distillation, a considerable quantity of strong spirit. According to Mr Neill, in France they are frequently grafted on the service tree, and the fruit is thus rendered of larger size, and more abundant. It is one of the most ornamental of all trees, when loaded with its large clusters of red berries in autumn.

SILVER LEAVED SHEPARDIA.

BUFFALO BERRY TREE.

A beautiful hardy tree, so called from its silvery leaf. This tree was discovered by Professor Nuttall, in Missouri, in 1810, and was introduced here by the Messrs Winship. The tree is of upright growth and thorny; the leaves are small, of a delicate silvery appearance. The fertile and barren flowers are produced on different trees; the fruit is of the size and appearance of a large currant, of a fine scarlet color, and beautiful appearance; they envelope the branches in profuse clusters. It is of a rich taste, and valuable, with preparation, for preserves, tarts, &c.

NUTS.

WALNUT. (Juglans regia.)

ENGLISH OR MADEIRA NUT.

The walnut is a native of Persia and China. It is a lofty spreading tree, with pinnated leaves, of a powerful odor. The fruit is roundish oblong, smooth, green, inclosing a nut of a yellow color and irregular form, which contains a four lobed kernel of an agreeable taste.

USES. The walnut is an esteemed dessert fruit; it also forms an excellent pickle when gathered, while it is yet so tender as to be easily probed with a needle. In France, according to Phillips, an oil equal to the oil of almonds is drawn from them. This oil does not congeal by cold, is highly prized by the painters for mixing delicate colors and varnish; and is excellent in medicine. He further informs us that the young preserved nuts are an excellent sweetmeat; good to be eaten in the morning, in time of pestilential distempers, to prevent infection. - A most superior family medicine when eaten in the small quantity of a single nut. They are prepared as follows: green walnuts in the state fit for pickling are boiled till tender; then take them out, and to every pound of nuts add a pound of moist

sugar, a little water, lemon peel, mace, cloves, and simmer till the syrup is thick, and let them stand ten days; then clarify half as much more sugar, and boiled as before; and when cold cover them close for use.

The decoction of the leaves annoys or destroys noxious insects and worms.

The timber is very extensively used for gunstocks, being deemed lighter in proportion to its strength and elasticity than any other wood.

CULTIVATION, SOIL, &c. The walnut is raised from the seed planted in autumn; the second year they are transplanted and deprived of a portion of their tap root. They require a rich soil of loam and sand rather than clay. The varieties may be inarched or budded from the minute buds at the base of the young shoot, inserted in the summit of the two years old wood.

BLACK WALNUT. (Juglans nigra.)

A majestic tree, with a round spreading head, which sometimes rises to the height of seventy feet, with a diameter of from four to seven feet. The leaves are pinnate and consist of six or eight pair of leaflets. They are acuminate, serrate and downy. The fruit is large and surrounded with a thick, globular, smooth, green husk; the shell is rough, uneven in its surface, odoriferous, hard, thick, and black. It incloses a four lobed kernel which is large and sweet.

USES. From the nut an oil is expressed equal to olive oil for food and useful for the painter. From the husk a brown dye is procured of different shades. The sap wood is white, but the heart is violet, becoming nearly black. It is very strong, fine grained, compact and heavy, and admits a beautiful polish, and is employed for furniture, and the stocks of muskets, and for the naves of wheels. It is strong and durable; and it is said to be never attacked by the sea worm.

CULTIVATION, SOIL, &C. The cultivation of this tree is the same as the walnut. It flourishes in any good soil; but prefers the deep, fertile, and alluvial soils on the margins of creeks and rivers.