86 ILICINE^E. [ILEX. 



Copses and woods, from Caithness southd., often planted ; ascends to 1,000 ft.- 

 in the Highlands ; Ireland ; Channel Islands ; fl. May- Aug. A shrub or 

 small tree, 10-40 ft., young shoots puberulous ; bark ashy, smooth. Leaves 

 glossy, 2-3 in., acute or acuminate, with waved spinous cartilaginous 

 margins., those on the upper branches often entire. Cymes umbellate, shortly 

 peduncled, many-fld. Flowers J in. diani., white, often subdicecious. Sepals 

 ovate, puberulous. Petals obovate, concave. Stiymas 4, sessile. Drupe 

 scarlet, rarely yellow ; stones 4, bony, furrowed. DISTRIB. Europe from 

 S. Norway to Turkey and the Caucasus; W. Asia, 



ORDER XXI. EMPETRA'CEJE. 



Heath-like shrubs. Leaves alternate, exstipulate. Flowers small, soli- 

 tary or clustered, axillary or terminal, regular, polygamous, bracteolate or 

 not. Sepals (or bracts) 2-3, distinct, coriaceous, or thin, imbricate in bud. 

 Petals (or sepals) 2-3, hypogynous, distinct, persistent. Stamens 3-4, 

 alternate with the petals, hypogynous ; filaments long, filiform, persistent ; 

 anthers deciduous, 2-celled ; pollen compound. Ovary globose, 3-9-celled ; 

 styles short, stigmas subulate or dilated ; ovule 1, ascending from the 

 inner angle of each cell, anatropous. Drupe depressed-globose, with 

 2-9 bony 1-seeded connate or distinct stones. Seed erect, 3-gonous, testa 

 very thin, albumen fleshy ; embryo straight, slender, axile, cotyledons 

 short, radicle inferior. DISTRIB. N. ternp. and Arctic zones, Chili and 

 Fuegia ; genera 3 ; species 4. AFFINITIES. Very close to Ilicinece 

 (Decaisne) ; reduced Ericaceae (A. Gray) ; with Euphorbiacece (A. DC., 

 &c.). PROPERTIES unimportant. 



1. EMPE'TRUM, L. CROWBERRY. 



"Flowers bracteolate. Sepals and petals 3 each,, quite entire. Ovary 

 6-9-celled ; stigmas 6-9, dilated. Drupe fleshy ; stones free. DISTRIB. of 

 the Order ; species 1. ETYM. eV TreVpo*/, from growing in stony places. 



E. ni'grum, L. ; leaves linear-oblong margins so recurved as to meet 

 over the midrib. 



Moors, &c., Shetland to Devon and Somerset (Sussex, extinct) ; ascends 

 to 4,000 ft. ; Ireland ; fl. April-June. Glabrous, tufted ; branches 6-18 in., 

 slender, wiry, spreading and trailing. Leaves J- in., crowded, obtuse, 

 reddish in age, sides minutely scabrid, the recurved portion concealing the 

 pubescent under-surface, and forming a tube closed at both ends. Flowers 



. minute, sessile. Sepals rounded, concave. Petals scarious, subspathulate, 

 pink, reflexed. Filaments very long; anthers red. Drupe |-f in., black 

 (often purple in N. America, red in S. America), eatable. The structure of 

 the leaf is very curious. 



