1276 EMPETRUM. [CLASS XXII. ORDER 11. 
Sir J. E. Smith, quoting the remarks of Wahlenberg upon this 
plant, says that “this is the most beautiful Willow in Sweden, if not 
in the whole world. The splendid golden catkins at the ends of the 
young branches light up as it were the whole bush, and are accom- 
panied by the young foliage, sparkling with gold and silver. It 
yields more honey than any other Salix, insomuch that the catkins 
are sweet in ‘the mouth, and are much frequented by alpine bees. 
From the marginal glands of the stipules, and sometimes from those 
of the leaves, a gummy exudation proceeds, staining paper, in which 
the plant is dried, like S. pentandra.” 
ORDER II. 
TRIAND'RIA. 38 STAMENS. 
—— 
GENUS II. EMPE’TRUM.—Liyy. Crow-berry. 
Nat. Ord. Emprtrre'’s#. Norv. 
Gen. Guar. Flowers with the perianth of numerous imbricated 
scales, the inner ones often regular, spreading, and petaloid. 
Barren flowers with three stamens, the filaments long. Fertile 
flowers with peltate stigmas, in numerous rays. Fruit a supe- 
rior globose berry, with six to nine seeds —Name from ®, in ; 
and wereos, a stone; so called from its growing in stony places. 
1. EH. ni'grum, Linn. (Fig. 1540.) Black Crow-berry, or Crake-berry: 
Procumbent leaves, oblong, linear; stigma with nine rays. 
English Botany, t. 526.—English Flora, vol. iv. p. 233.— Hooker, 
British Flora, ed. 4. v. i. p. 875.—Lindley, Synopsis, p. 224. 
A small procumbent shrub, much branched, slender, smooth, dark 
brown, partly ascending. eaves numerous, crowded, imperfectly 
whorled, linear, oblong, obtuse, a dark shining green, the margins 
recurved, footstalk short, terminating in a pale mid-rib. Flowers 
sessile, in axillary clusters towards the top of the branches, small, 
purplish. Stamens purplish, with long filaments, and large two- 
celled anthers. Fruit a black round berry, about half the size of a 
currant, clustered, numerous, containing about eight erect triangular 
seeds. 
Habitat—Mountain heaths; abundant in the North. 
Shrub ; flowering in May. 
The berries have somewhat the flavour of Elder berries, and form 
the chief food of moor game and other mountain birds. They are often 
eaten by the children of the Highlands of Scotland, but it is said 
they give them the head-ache. Gmelin says that in Siberia an acrid 
