304 THE CROWBERRY FAMILY. 



THE CROWBERRY FAMILY. 



EmpetracecE, 



Ceratibla ericoides. {Plate XCV.^ 



FAMILY COLOUR ODOUR RANGE TIME OF BLOOM 



Crowberry. Reddish. Scentless, Florida to Soutk Carolina. October., November , 



Floivers : dioecious; very small; growing in axillary whorls. Calyx: with two 

 fringed sepals and bracted at its base. Corolla: with two petals. Stamens: two, 

 conspicuous. Style : short; stigma, cleft. Drupe: yellowish ; somewhat per- 

 sistent. Leases : not half an inch long, with very short, yellowish petioles ; 

 narrowly linear, or needle-shaped, with revolute margins and grooved through the 

 underside; olive-green; lustrous above; glabrous; evergreen. An erect shrub, 

 two to five feet high, verticillately branched; the young growth pubescent. 



This is one of our dearest, prettiest little shrubs, having, as it grows 

 through dry barrens, a heath-like look. And especially charming is it in the 

 autumn when lit with its clustered red bloom, for which the stone-grey and 

 rather rough bark forms so artistic a background. Happily it is beginning 

 to be abundantly seen in cultivation. 



THE BOX FAMILY. 



Bicxcaece. 



ALLEGHANY MOUNTAIN SPURGE. 



Pa chysdn d?'a proc udi beii s. 



FAMILY COLOUR ODOUR RANGE TIME OF BLOOM 



Box. Purplish or green. Fragrant. Florida and Louisiana February-May. 



to Virginia. 



Floivers : monoecious, growing in lateral spikes low on the stem and in the axils 

 of the scales. Staviinate flozvers^: dense, at the upper part of the spike; pistillate 

 ones few, below the others. Sepals: four, ovate, ciliate, green or purplish. 

 Petals: none. Stamens: four, their filaments thick and exserted. Leaves: alter- 

 nate ; broadly ovate, or obovate, pointed or bluntly so at the apex and narrowed 

 at the base into the margined petiole ; coarsely dentate, entire, at least at the base. 

 Stem: curving; ascending; sometimes pubescent. Kootstock : matted. 



The Alleghany mountain spurge shows us a form of growth which 

 seems perhaps peculiar, and one with which we are little accustomed. 

 Usually herbs raise high their flowers as though with pride, but those of 

 this plant cling to the stem about its lower part and let the leaves tower 

 boldly above them. Even then their thick, white stamens, from which the 

 generic name has been given, are their most prominent feature. In dense, 

 shaded woods through its range the plant throws out sometimes an abun- 

 dant leafage, and is the only one of the family which inhabits America, the 

 other species of the genus being a native of Japan. 



