EMPETRACE.^— CROWBERRY FAMILY 



BLACK CROWBERRY. HEATHBERRY 



£,mpetru7)i iiigrum. 



Empetnim, upon a rock ; an ancient Greek name, refer- 

 ring to the growth of these plants in rocky places. 



A low, evergreen, much branched shrub, forming dense masses 

 in rocky places ; branches closely beset with oblong-linear leaves. 

 Found on the high mountains of New England and New York, 

 on the northern shore of Lake Superior, on the banks of the 

 Saguenay, along the international boundary to British Columbia 

 and in Alaska. Bark reddish brown; that of branches rough- 

 ened with the remains of petioles. 



Leaves. — Simple, thickly scattered or whorled, three-eighths 

 to one-fourth of an inch long, oblong-linear, entire, edges so 

 revolute that they meet at the back ; bright green. The leaves 

 are jointed to short pulvini, channelled on the lower side by the 

 revolute margins. 



Flowers. — Summer; dioecious, inconsjjicuous, solitary in the 

 axils of the upper leaves, purplish. Sepals and petals mostly 

 three. Staminate flowers with three stamens, the anthers in- 

 trorse. Pistillate flowers with a globose, six to nine-celled ovary 

 and a short thick style with six to nine-toothed segments. 



Fruit. — Berry-like drupe, globular, black, seated in the calyx 

 and cro\vned with remnants of the stigma. Flesh juicy, slightly 

 acid, not unpleasant, containing six to nine seed-like nutlets. 

 Eaten by birds. 



The Black Crowberry is a subarctic plant, found in 

 America, Europe, and Asia, which seeks the cold thin 



488 



