440 EMPETRACE^E. ( CROWBERRY FAMILY.) 



(P. ere'cta, Raf., Baillon, is the same.) — "Woods, mountains of Kentucky, W. 

 Virginia, and southward. March -May. 



Order 98. EMPETRACEjE. (Crowberry Family.) 



Low shrubby evergreens, with the foliage, aspect, and compound pollen of 

 Heaths, and the drupaceous fruit of Arctostaphylos, but the divided or 

 laciniate stigmas„&c. of some Euphorbiaceae : — probably only an apetalous 

 and polygamous or dioecious degenerate form of Ericaceae, — comprising 

 three genera, two of which occur within the limits of this work, and the 

 third farther south. 



1. EMPETRUM, Tourn. Crowberry. 



Flowers polygamous, scattered and solitary in the axils of the leaves (incon- 

 spicuous), scaly-bracted. Calyx of 3 spreading and somewhat petal-like sepals. 

 Stamens 3. Style very short : stigma 6 - 9-rayed. Fruit a berry -like drupe, 

 with 6-9 seed-like nutlets, each containing an erect anatropous seed. Embryo 

 terete, in the axis of copious albumen, with a slender inferior radicle and very 

 small cotyledons. (An ancient name, from iv, upon, and irtrpos, a rock.) 



1. E. nigrum, L. (Black Crowberry.) Procumbent and spreading ; 

 leaves linear-oblong, scattered ; fruit black. — Alpine summits of the mountains 

 of New England and New York, Lake Superior, and northward. (Eu.) 



2. CORE MA, Don. (Broom-Crowberry.) 



Flowers dioecious or polygamous, collected in terminal heads, each in the axil 

 of a scaly bract, and with 5 or 6 thin and scarious imbricated bractlets, but no 

 proper calyx. Stamens 3, rarely 4, with long filaments. Style slender, 3- 

 (or rarely 4-5-) cleft: stigmas narrow, often toothed. Drupe small, with 3 

 (rarely 4-5) nutlets. Seed, &c. as in the last. — Diffusely much-branched 

 little shrubs, with scattered or nearly whorled narrowly linear heath-like leaves. 

 (Name Kopn^a, a broom, from the bushy aspect.) 



1. C. Conradii, Torrey. Diffusely branched, nearly smooth ; drupe very 

 small, dry and juiceless when ripe. (Empetrum, Torr. Tuckermsinia, K/otzsch. 

 Oakesia, Tuclcermanti.) — Sandy pine barrens and dry rocky places, New Jersey ; 

 Long Island ; Plymouth and Cape Cod, Massachusetts ; Bath, and islands of 

 Penobscot Bay, Maine. (Also Newfoundland.) April. — Shrub 6' -9' high : 

 the sterile plant handsome in flower, on account of the tufted purple filaments 

 and brown-purple anthers. (Gray, Chlor. Bor.-Am. t. 1.) 



Order 99. IJRTICACEiE. (Nettle Family.) 



Plants with stipules, and monoecious or dioecious, or rarely (in the Elm 

 Family) perfect flowers, furnished ivith a regular calyx, free from the 1- 

 celled (rarely 2-celled) ovary which forms a 1-seeded fruit ; the embryo in 

 the albumen when there is uny, its radicle pointing upwards; stamens as 



