606 AKISTOLOCHIACE^E KMPKTRDM 



ASARDM 



ORDER LXXXIV EMPETRACEJE Dumort. Fl. Belg. 106. 



Low evergreen shrubs with watery juice, small narrow leaves 

 without stipules and small dioecious or polygamous flowers in 

 terminal heads or axillary. Calyx of 3 sepals sometimes a few 

 petals also present. Staminate flowers with 2-4 stamens: fila- 

 ments filiform : anther 2-celled, the cells longitudinally dehis- 

 cent: sometimes a rudimentary pistil present. Pistillate flowers 

 with a 2-several-celled sessile ovary : the single style cleft into 

 as many segments as cells of the ovary. Ovules one in each 

 cell, amphitropous. Fruit a berry-like drupe containing 2-sev- 

 eral 1- seeded nutlets. Embryo straight, terete, in copious 

 albumen. 



1 EMPETRUM L. Sp. 1022. 



Depressed or spreading, freely branching shrubs with narrow 

 sessile leaves and small flowers solitary in the upper axils. Sep- 

 als mostly 3, often with as many petals. Staminate flowers with 

 3 stamens, the anthers introrse. Pistillate flowers with a globose 

 6-9-celled ovary and short thick style with 6-9-toothed segments. 

 Drupe black or red, containing 6-9 nutlets. 



E. nigrum L .Sp. 1022. Glabrous or the young shoots pubescent : stems 

 6-18 inches long, usually much branched, the branches diffusely spreading: 

 leaves crowded dark green, linear-oblong, obtuse, 2-4 lines long, the stron- 

 gly revolute margins roughish: flowers very small, purplish: stamens ex- 

 serted: drupe 2-3 lines in diameter, usually not maturing until the follow- 

 ing season. On rocky banks near the coast, California to the Arctic regions, 

 and on the northern Atlantic coast Europe and Asia. 



ORDER LXXXV ARISTOLOCHIACE^ Blume 

 Enum. PI. Jav. 181, (1830.) 



Herbs or shrubs with watery juice, alternate or all radical 

 leaves without stipules and mostly large flowers solitary or clus- 

 tered in the axils of the leaves or terminal. Calyx-tube adnate 

 to the ovary, its limb 3-lobed, 6-lobed or irregular. Stamens 6- 

 many, inserted on the pistil : anthers 2-celled, extrorse longitu- 

 dinally dehiscent. Ovary wholly or partly inferior, mostly 6 cel- 

 led. Ovules numerous in each cell, anatropous, horizontal or 

 pendulous. Fruit a many-seeded mostly 6-celled capsule. Seeds 

 ovoid or oblong, angled or compressed, the testa crustaceous, 

 smooth or wrinkled, usually with a fleshy or dilated raphe. Em- 

 bryo minute, in copious fleshy albumen. 



1 ASARUM L. Sp. 442. 



Acaulescent perennials with cordate long-petioled leaves and 

 dull-colored flowers solitary in the axils of the leaves. Calyx 

 campanulate or hemispheric, adnate to the ovary, at least below, 

 regularly 3-lobed, the lobes valvate. Stamens 12, inserted on the 

 ovary. Ovary partly or wholly inferior, 6-celled, the parietal 

 placentse intruded. Capsule coriaceous, crowned by the marces- 



