EMBOTHRIUM ENKIANTHUS 511 



Cornish gardens there are specimens 30 ft. high, and about the same 

 through. Like many of its natural order it is often short-lived, and after 

 twenty to twenty-five years is liable to die suddenly without any assign- 

 able reason. A native of Chile; introduced by Wm. Lobb in 1846; 

 flowers in May. A tree 40 ft. high, at Kilmacurragh, has a trunk ij ft. 

 in thickness, and produces suckers from the roots. , 



EMPETRUM NIGRUM, Linnceus. CROWBERRY. EMPETRACE^:. 



A low, evergreen, heath-like shrub, about i ft. high in gardens, with 

 spreading, wiry, procumbent stems, minutely downy when young. Leaves 

 narrow-linear, \ to \ in. long, sometimes arranged in fours, but usually 

 arranged indiscriminately on the shoot, always crowded, blunt at the 

 apex, dark green with a white line beneath, margins much decurved. 

 Flowers mostly unisexual, with the sexes on different plants, produced 

 during March singly in the leaf-axils near the tips of the previous summer's 

 shoots. They are very small, and the only conspicuous part is the 

 stamens, of which there are three to each male flower ; they are pinkish, 

 and have long, very slender stalks holding the anthers slightly beyond the 

 leaves. The fruit is an orange-shaped black berry, -^ in. wide, borne in 

 clusters near the end of the twigs, each containing six to nine seeds. 



Native of the high latitudes of the northern hemisphere, including 

 Britain; a form approaching var. tomentosum is also found in Chile. 

 The crowberry is not common in gardens, but it thrives very well in the 

 London district and makes a low, dense, neat mass of greenery, easily 

 increased by cuttings. It is a moorland plant, and an associate of che 

 heather, cranberry and whortleberry, and likes a sandy, peaty soil. The 

 fruits are said to be eaten by peasantry, but are not very desirable. 

 The only allied genus in gardens is Corema. The affinities of these shrubs 

 are doubtful, but the general opinion now is to regard them as nearest to 

 the box family. 



Var. PURPUREUM. Berries reddish purple. Native of N. America 



Var. SCOTICUM. A dwarf form with smaller leaves. 



Var. TOMENTOSUM. Young stems thickly covered with grey down. 



ENKIANTHUS. ERICACEAE. 



A distinct group of deciduous shrubs and small trees, native of 

 N.E. Asia. In habit they are marked by the branches and leaves being 

 in whorls, which give to some species a peculiar tabulated appearance. 

 The flowers are in pendulous umbels or racemes ; the corolla either bell- 

 shaped or pitcher-shaped, with five small lobes. Calyx five-lobed, and 

 persistent on the seed-vessel. Stamens ten, not so long as the corolla. 



These shrubs like a moist soil, with which decayed leaves and some 

 peat have been mixed. Probably, like so many of their family, they 

 dislike lime. Their general treatment is the same as for the hardy 

 Azaleas, and they have a similar love of sunshine. In flower they are 

 pretty and interesting, but their great beauty comes in autumn, when the 



