Genus i. 



CROWBERRY FAMILY. 



479 



I. EMPETRUM [Tourn.] L. Sp. Tl. 1022. 1753. 



Depressed or spreading herbaceous shrubs, freely branching, dioecious or monoecious, the 

 branches usually densely leafy, the leaves linear-oblong. Flowers inconspicuous, solitary in 

 the upper axils. Sepals and petals mostly 3. Staminate flowers with 3 stamens, the anthers 

 introrse. Pistillate flowers with a globose 6-9-celled ovary, and a short thick style with 

 6-9-toothed segments. Drupe black to red, containing 6-9 nutlets. [Greek, on rocks, refer- 

 ring to the growth of these plants in rocky places.] 



Two known species, the following typical one, and C, rubruin of southern South America. 



I. Empetrum nigrum L. Black 

 Crowberrv. Heathberry. 

 2773- 



Fig. 



EtHpetrum nigrum L. Sp. PI. 102^. 1753. 



Glabrous, or the young shoots and 

 leaves pubescent, usually much branch- 

 ed, the branches diffusely spreading, 

 2'-io' long. Leaves crowded, dark 

 green, linear-oblong, thick, obtuse, 2"- 

 Zi" long, about i" wide, the strongly 

 revolute margins roughish ; flowers 

 very small, purplish ; stamens e.xserted; 

 drupe black, purple or red, 2"-3" in 

 diameter. 



In rocky places, Greenland to Alaska, 

 south to the coast of Maine, the higher 

 mountains of New England and northern 

 New York, Michigan and California. Also 

 in Europe and Asia. Crake-berry. Black- 

 berried heath. Wire-ling. Crow-pea. 

 Monox-heather. Heath. Hog-cranberry. 

 Crowberrv. Curlew-berry. Grows in dense 

 beds ; the fruit much eaten hy arctic birds. 

 Summer. 



2. COREMA Don, Edinb. New Phil. Journ. 15: 63. 1826-27. 

 [OAKESL\.Tuckerni. in Hook. Lond. Journ. Bot. i: 445. 184J,] 

 Low, much branched shrubs, with narrowly linear leaves crowded on the branches, and 

 small dioecious or polygamous flowers in terminal heads. Corolla none. Staminate flowers 

 with 3 or sometimes 4 long-exserted stamens, occasionally with a rudimentary or perfect 

 pistil. Pistillate flowers with a 2-5-celled (mostly 3-celled) ovary and a slender 2-5-cleft 

 style, the stigmatic branches very slender, sometimes toothed. Drupe globose, usually with 

 3 nutlets. [Greek, a broom, in allusion to the bushy habit.] 



Two species, the following of the eastern United States, the other, the generic type, of south- 

 western Europe, the Azores and Canaries. 



"" " I. Corema Conradii Torr. Conrad's 



Broom Crowberrv. Fig. 2774. 



Empetrum Conradii Torr. Ann. Lye. N. Y. 4: 83. 



1837. 

 C. Conradii Torr. ; Loudon, Encycl. Trees 1092. 1842. 



Much branched, 6'-2 high, the young twigs 

 puberulent and densely leafy, the branches mi- 

 nutely scarred by the persistent pulvini. Leaves 

 2"-3" long, rather less than i" wide, obtuse, 

 gbbrous when mature, bright green; flowers 

 numerous in the terminal sessile heads, the pis- 

 tillate ones almost concealed by the upper leaves, 

 the staminate conspicuous by the e.xserted purple 

 stamens ; drupes nearly dry, less than l" in 

 diameter. 



In rocky or sandy soil, Newfoundland to Massa- 

 chusetts and New Jersey, mostly near the coast : but 

 occurring in one station on the Shawangimk Moun- 

 tains in Ulster Co., N. Y. Local. Usually growing in 

 large patches. April-May. Brown or Plymouth crow- 

 berry. Poverty-grass. 



