[app. another spelling of CHEQUER sb.2, transferred to another plant, as frequent with names of animals and plants.] The fruit of Gaultheria procumbens, a small trailing plant of North America, with oval evergreen leaves and drooping white flowers; hence the plant itself; the Winter-green.
1823. J. F. Cooper, Pioneer, ix. A bunch of checker-berries.
1852. Mrs. Stowe, Uncle Tom’s C., I. xvii. 282. Chewing some checkerberry-leaves as he spoke.
1872. O. W. Holmes, Poet Breakf.-t., i. 8. The flora is rich in checkerberries and similar bounties of nature.
¶ The Partridge-berry, Mitchella repens (Webster).
(Partridge-berty is also a name of Gaultheria: hence the confusion.)
Checkered ppl. a.: see the spelling CHEQUERED.
