Voi,. II.] 



CROWBERRY FAMILY. 



333 



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 i in each cavity, amphitropous. 

 Fruit a berry-like drupe, containing 2-several i -seeded nutlets. Embryo 

 straight, terete, in copious endosperm. 



Three known genera, the following, and the monotypic Corrigiola of the southeastern United 

 States. 



Flowers axillary; petals 3. I. Empetrum. 



Flowers in terminal heads; petals none. 2. Corema. 



i. EMPETRUM L. Sp. PI. 1022. 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. 



i. Empetrum nigrum I,. Black 



Crowberry. Heathberry. 



(Fig. 2343.) 



Empetrum nigrum L. Sp. PI. 1022. 1753. 

 Glabrous, or the young shoots pubes- 

 cent, usually much branched, the 

 branches diffusely spreading, 2 / -io / 

 long. Leaves crowded, dark green, 

 linear-oblong, thick, obtuse, 2 // ~3^ // 

 long, about ^" wide, the strongly revo- 

 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. 



[OAKESIA Tuckerm. in Hook. Lond. Journ. Bot. i: 445. 1842.] 



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. 



