Vou. II.] CROWBERRY FAMILY. 383 
Family 59. EMPETRACEAE Dumort. Fl. Belg. 106. 1827. 
CROWBERRY FAMILY. 
Low evergreen shrubs, with small narrow nearly sessile exstipulate leaves 
jointed to short pulvini, channeled on the lower side by the revolute margins, 
and small dioecious or rarely polygamous flowers, axillary or in terminal heads. 
Calyx of 3 sepals. Corolla of 2 or 3 petals, or none. Staminate flowers with 
2-4 (mostly 3) stamens, the filaments filiform, the anthers 2-celled, longitudi- 
nally dehiscent, sometimes with a rudimentary pistil. Pistillate flowers with a 
2-several-celled sessile ovary, the single style cleft into as many stigma-bearing 
segments as there are ovary-cavities; ovules 1 in each cavity, amphitropous. 
Fruit a berry-like drupe, containing 2-several 1-seeded nutlets. Embryo 
straight, terete, in copious endosperm. 
Three known genera, the following, and the monotypic Corrigio/a of the southeastern United 
States. 
Flowers axillary; petals 3. 1. Empetrum. 
Flowers in terminal heads; petals none. 2. Corema. 
1. EMPETRUM I. Sp) Pls 190223) 1753. 
Depressed or spreading herbaceous shrubs, freely branching, dioecious or monoecious, 
the branches usually densely leafy, the leaves linear-oblong. Flowers inconspicuous, soli- 
tary 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, or red, containing 6-9 nutlets. [Greek, on rocks, 
referring to the growth of these plants in rocky places. ] 
Two known species, the following, and C. rubrum of southern South America, 
1. Empetrum nigrum L. Black NY Y it 
Crowberry. Heathberry. \ \E v4 
(Fig. 2343.) SY ) WY Y 
| 
Empeltrum nigrum V,. Sp. Pl. 1022. 1753. 
\y 
AEN NZ 
Glabrous, or the young shoots pubes- SV N Yy We wt 2 
cent, usually much branched, the LV R Za W/ JZ 
branches diffusely spreading, 2/—10 Ley | NG ) Fm 
SN 7 XX WV 
long. Leaves crowded, dark green, } Av } 
linear-oblong, thick, obtuse, 2//-314// 
long, about 1%4’’ wide, the strongly reyo- 
lute margins roughish; flowers very 
small, purplish; stamens exserted; drupe 
black (red in an arctic form), 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. Called also Crake- 
berry, Blackberried Heath, Wire Ling, Crow- 
pea and Monox Heather. Grows in dense 
beds; the fruit much eaten by arctic birds. 
Summer. 
2. COREMA Don, Edinb. New Phil. Journ. 15: 63. 1826-27. 
(OaKkesta Tuckerm, in Hook, Lond, Journ. Bot. 1: 445. 1542. ] 
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 of southwestern Europe, the 
Azores and Canaries. 
