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| Vaccinium myrtillus |
Bilberry
Botanical: Vaccinium
myrtillus (LINN.)
Family: N.O. Vacciniaceae
---Synonyms---Whortleberry.
Black Whortles. Whinberry. Trackleberry. Huckleberry. Hurts. Bleaberry.
Hurtleberry. Airelle. Vaccinium Frondosum. Blueberries.
---Parts Used---The ripe fruit. The leaves.
---Habitat---Europe, including Britain, Siberia and Barbary.
---Description---V.
myrtillus grows abundantly in our heathy and mountainous districts, a
small branched shrub, with wiry angular branches, rarely over a foot high,
bearing globular wax-like flowers and black berries, which are covered
when quite ripe with a delicate grey bloom, hence its name in Scotland, 'Blea-berry,'
from an old North Countryword, 'blae,' meaning livid or bluish. The name
Bilberry (by some old writers 'Bulberry') is derived from the Danish 'bollebar,'
meaning dark berry. There is a variety with white fruits.
The leathery leaves (in
form somewhat like those of the myrtle, hence its specific name) are at
first rosy, then yellowish-green, and in autumn turn red and are very
ornamental. They have been utilized to adulterate tea.
Bilberries flourish best on
high grounds, being therefore more abundant in the north and west than in
the south and east of England: they are absent from the low-lying
Cambridgeshire and Suffolk, but on the Surrey hills, where they are called
'Hurts,' cover the ground for miles.
The fruit is globular, with
a flat top, about the size of a black currant. When eaten raw, they have a
slightly acid flavour. When cooked, however, with sugar, they make an
excellent preserve. Gerard tells us that 'the people of Cheshire do eate
the black whortles in creame and milke as in these southern parts we eate
strawberries.' On the Continent, they are often employed for colouring
wine.
Stewed with a little sugar
and lemon peel in an open tart, Bilberries make a very enjoyable dish.
Before the War, immense quantities of them were imported annually from
Holland, Germany and Scandinavia. They were used mainly by pastrycooks and
restaurant-keepers.
Owing to its rich juice,
the Bilberry can be used with the least quantity of sugar in making jam:
half a pound of sugar to the pound of berries is sufficient if the
preserve is to be eaten soon. The minuteness of the seeds makes them more
suitable for jam than currants.
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---Constituents---Quinic
acid is found in the leaves, and a little tannin. Triturated with water
they yield a liquid which, filtered and assayed with sulphate of iron,
becomes a beautiful green, first of all transparent, then giving a green
precipitate.
The fruits contain sugar,
etc.
---Medicinal
Action and Uses---The leaves can be used in the same way as
those of UvaUrsi. The fruits are astringent, and are
especially valuable in diarrhoea and dysentery, in the form of syrup. The
ancients used them largely, and Dioscorides spoke highly of them. They are
also used for discharges, and as antigalactagogues. A decoction of the
leaves or bark of the root may be used as a local application to ulcers,
and in ulceration of the mouth and throat.
The fruit is helpful in
scurvy and urinary complaints, and when bruised with the roots and steeped
in gin has diuretic properties valuable in dropsy and gravel. A tea made
of the leaves is also a remedy for diabetes if taken for a prolonged
period.
---Dosages---Of
powder of the berries, 4 grammes. Of syrup, 60 grammes to a litre of
water. Of fluid extract, 1/2 to 2 drachms.
---Other
Species---V. arboreum, or Farkleberry. This is the most
astringent variety, and both berries and root-bark may be used internally
for diarrhoea, chronic dysentery, etc. The infusion is valuable as a local
application in sore throat, chronic ophthalmia, leucorrhoea, etc.
V. resinosum, V. damusum,
and V. gorymbosum have properties resembling those of V.
myrtillus.
The Bog Bilberry ( V.
uliginosum) is a smaller, less erect plant, with round stems and
untoothed leaves, greyish green beneath. Both flowers and berries are
smaller than those of the common Bilberry. This kind is quite absent in
the south and only to be found in mountain bogs and moist copses, in
Scotland, Durham and Westmorland.
The berries of both species
are a favourite food of birds.
The 'Huckleberry' of North
America, so widely appreciated there, is our Bilberry - the name being an
obvious corruption of 'Whortleberry.'
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---Recipe for Bilberry
Jam---
Put 3 lb. of clean, fresh fruit in a preserving pan with 1 1/2 lb. of
sugar and about 1 cupful of water and bring to the boil. Then boil rapidly
for 40 minutes. Apple juice made from windfalls and peelings, instead of
the water, improves this jam. To make apple juice, cover the apples with
water, stew down, and strain the juice through thick muslin. Blackberries
may also be added to this mixture.
If the jam is to be kept
long it must be bottled hot in screw-top jars, or, if tied down in the
ordinary way, more sugar must be added.
Bilberry juice yields a
clear, dark-blue or purple dye that has been much used in the dyeing of
wool and the picking of berries for this purpose, as well as for food,
constitutes a summer industry in the 'Hurts' districts. Owing to the
shortage of the aniline dyestuffs formerly imported from Germany,
Bilberries were eagerly bought up at high prices by dye manufacturers
during the War, so that in 1917 and 1918 a large proportion of the
Bilberry crop was not available for jam-making, as the dyers were scouring
the country for the little blue-black berries. |
