EUPIIORBIALES.] 



EMPETRACE^. 



285 



Order XCIII. EMPETRACE^.— Crowberries. 



Empetrese.— iVM«. Gen. 2.233; Don. in Edinh. New Phil. Journ. (1826); Hooker in Bot. May. 

 t. 2758. (1827) ; Endl. ccxli. ; Meisner, p. 336. 



Diagnosis. — Euphorhial Exogens, with definite ascendi^ig anatropal ovules, and an 



inferior radicle. 



Small arid shrubs with heathlike evergreen leaves without stipules, and minute 

 flowers in theu' axils. Flowers ^ <? • Sepals, hj-pogynous persistent imbricated scales, 

 the innermost of which are sometimes petaloid, or 

 even combined into a monopetalous corolla (as in 

 Oakesia). <J Stamens equal in number to the inner 

 sepals, and alternate with them ; anthers roundish, 

 2-celled, the cells distinct, bursting longitudinally. 

 $ Ovary free, seated in a fleshy disk, 3- 6- or 9-celled ; 

 ovules solitary, anatropal, ascending ; style 1 ; 

 stigma radiating, the number of its rays correspond- 

 ing with the cells of the ovary. Fruit fleshy, seated 

 in the persistent calyx, 3- 6- or 9-celled ; the coating 

 of the cells bony. Seeds soUtary, ascending ; embryo 

 taper, in the axis of fleshy watei'y albumen ; radicle 

 inferior. 



This Uttle group can in nowise be separated from 

 Spurgeworts, from which indeed it is scarcely distin- | 

 guishable by any positive character except the ascend- 

 ing seeds and inferior radicle. In habit too it quite 

 corresponds with such heath-like genera of Spurge- 

 worts as Micrantheaand Pseudan thus, which do not 

 seem to differ from that Order. 



A very small group, comprising a few species from 

 the North of Europe, North America, the South of 

 Europe, and the Straits of Magellan. 



The leaves and fruit are slightly acid. The black 

 berries of the Ci'owberry, Empetrum nigrum, sub-acid 

 and unpleasant to the taste, are eaten in the arctic 

 parts of Europe, and are regarded there as scorbutic 

 and dim'etic ; the Greenlanders prepare a fermented 2 

 liquor from them. The white berries of the Cama- 

 rinheira (Corema) are employed by the Portuguese 

 in preparing an acidulous beverage, which the do- 

 mestic physicians esteem in fevers. — Endl. Pig, cxcvii. 



GENERA. 

 Empetrum, L. 

 Corema, Don. 

 Ceratiola, Michx. 

 Oakesia, Tuckerm. 



Tuckermannia, Klotzsch. 



Numbers. Gen. 4. Sp. 4. 



Myricacem. 

 Position. — Euphorbiaceae. — Empetrace^. 



Fig. CXCVII.— Ceratiola ericoides 1. a (? flower ; 2. a ? ; 3. a view of the ovary, with its side 

 removed to show the ovules ; 4. ripe fruit ; .5. section across a seed.— Hooker. 



