254 SUB-ALPINE PLANTS 



Daphne Laureola L. Spurge Laurel. 



A glabrous, erect shrub 2-4 feet high, with few branches and 

 evergreen oblong-lanceolate leaves crowded towards the top. 

 Flowers rather small, greenish yellow, in clusters in the axils of 

 the leaves. Berries bluish black. 



Bushy places and mountain limestone woods up to 5000 feet ; 

 local. April, May. 



Distribution. — Southern and Western Europe, Corsica, N. Africa. 

 British. 



EL^AGNACE^ 



Shrubs or trees, more or less covered with minute, silvery or brown 

 scurfy scales. It differs from the Daphne family in having erect 

 and not pendulous ovules and seeds. 



A small family of few genera spread over the northern hemi- 

 sphere. 



Hippophae rhamnoides L. Sea Buckthorn. 



The only species. A stiff and spiny willow-like shrub, covered 

 with scaly scurf, silvery on the un,der-side of the leaves, thin or none 

 on the upper, and more rusty on the younger shoots, which often 

 end in a stout prickle. Leaves alternate, entire, broadly linear. 

 Male flowers very small and in little clusters like catkins, female 

 flowers crowded in the axils. Fruit a small yellowish or orange- 

 brown berry in almost sessile, crowded clusters on the bare, woody 

 stems. 



Sandy and stony places, and beds of rivers and mountain torrents 

 from the sea-level to 5000 feet in the Alps, as, e.g. on the Col de 

 Balme (French side). Flowers in spring. 



Distribution. — Central, Eastern, and Northern Europe ; Central 

 and Russian Asia. Local in Britain and often planted to mat the 

 sand of sand-hills together. This useful property can be seen 

 naturally in some of the river valleys of Switzerland and in the 

 north of France, as, e.g. between Calais and Paris. 



EMPETRACE^ 

 The family contains 3 genera and only 4 species. 

 Empetrum nigrum L. Crowberry. 



The only species. .This well-known prostrate shrub, with wiry 

 branches and hnear leaves, pale red flowers and black berries, is 

 locally common in the Alps, and is an example of a plant which, 

 though usually growing on the hills, is sometimes found at sea- 

 level in England (as in Dorset), in the Arctic regions, and at over 

 8000 feet in the Alps of Europe. May to July. 

 Distribution. — Europe, Asia, North America, Arctic regions. 



