449 



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[empl 



which covers over the radicle of some 

 kinds of embryo. It is the hardened apex 

 of the nucleus. 



EMERICELLA. A most curious genus, 

 connecting, apparently like Coniocybe and 

 some others, the myxogastrous Fungiwith } 

 Caliciei. The stem consists of a spongy 

 central column, giving off threads which 

 have gonidia like those of Paulia, and , 

 resembling some species of Palmella, to | 

 which we shall have occasion to recur here- i 

 after. These bodies become blue when 

 treated with iodine. The spores are pur- 

 plish, furnished with very long spines, I 

 seated in the same plane, and inclosed in a \ 

 globose peridium. The only species has ; 

 been found on decaying leaves of Euphorbia 

 neriifolia at Secunderabad. A figure will ! 

 be found in Berkeley's Introduction to 

 Cryptogamic Botany, p. 341. [M. J. B.] 



EMERUS. (Fr.) Coronilla Emerus. 



EMEX. A genus of Polygonacea?, closely 

 allied to Rumex, from which it is distin- I 

 guished by the perianth segments being : 

 united at the base, and by the flowers being I 

 polygamous. E. spinosus, the only species, ! 

 is a salt marsh annual, of the Mediterra- : 

 nean region, the Cape of Good Hope, and | 

 the Antilles. In habit it closely resembles j 

 Rumex pulcher, except that the leaves are 

 broadest in the middle, and the perianth 

 has much larger spines when the fruit has 

 arrived at maturity. [J. T. S.] 



EMILIA. A small group of composite 

 plants, separated from Cacalia, and con- 

 sisting mostly of annuals, represented by 

 E. sagittata, the Cacalia coccinea of gar- 

 I dens. They are natives of India, China, 

 and the South African islands. The flower- 

 heads are subcorymbose, the florets being 

 all tubulose, and in the common garden 

 forms either orange, scarlet, or yellowish. 

 The lobes of the florets are linear elongate, 

 and the pentagonal achenes are ciliated at 

 the angles, and crowned with a many- 

 rowed pappus of filiform hairs. [T. M.] 



EMMEXAXTHE. A genus of Eydro- 

 phyllacece, containing a single species from 

 California. It is an elegant erect herb 

 with alternate pinnatifld leaves, and pen- 

 dulous flowers in erect racemes, the calyx 

 being five-parted, the corolla campauulate 

 and persistent, and the stamens included. 

 The ovary is surrounded by a small disc, 

 and the capsule is oblong, and two-celled 

 from the meeting of the enlarged placentae 

 in its centre. [W. C] 



EMPETRACEjE (Croviberries). A natu- 

 ral order of monochlamydeous dicotyle- 

 dons belonging to Lindley's euphorbial 

 alliance of diclinous Exogens. Shrubs 

 with heath-like evergreen exstipulate 

 leaves, and small axillary flowers which 

 are usually imperfect. Perianth of four to 

 sixabypogynous persistent scales, the in- 

 nermost sometimes petaloid and united. 

 Stamens two to three, alternate, with an in- 

 ner row of scales. Ovary free in a fleshy disk, 

 two to nine-celled. Fruit fleshy, with two 

 to nine nucules ; seed solitary. Katives 



chiefly of the northern parts of Europe 

 and America. A few are found in the 

 South of Europe, and even at the Strait of 

 Magalhaens. The order is represented in 

 Britain by Empetrum nigrum, the black 

 crowberry, the fruit of which is eaten in 

 northern countries, and is used by the 

 Greenlanders to prepare a fermented liquor. 

 The leaves and fruit of some of the plants 

 are somewhat acid. There are four known 

 genera, and Ave species. Examples •.—Em- 

 petrum, Corema, Ceratiola. [J. H. B.] 



EMPETRUM. Crowberry or Crakeberry. 

 Small evergreen heath -like plants of the 

 order Empetracece, distinguished by the 

 following characters : calyx of three leaves 

 with six imbricated scales at the base; 

 three petals, and as many stamens ; berry 

 depressed.containing from six to ninebony 

 seeds. E. nigrum, the badge of the M'Leans, 

 is a small procumbent much-branched 

 shrub, with rough wiry branches and 

 small narrow leaves, the edges of which 

 are so much recurved as almost to form a 

 tube. The flowers are of a dark red colour, 

 small and situated in the axils of the upper 

 haves, and are succeeded by brownish- 

 black berries, ' about the size of juniper 

 berries, of a firm fleshy substance, and 

 insipid in taste. A native of moors and 

 the sides of boggy hills throughout the 

 north of the Eastern continent, and the 

 islands towards America. In Great Britain 

 it is most abundant on the Scottish hills, 

 where it affords abundant food to the moor- 

 game, and is also found in the moorland 

 districts of the north of England. Its 

 berries are eaten by the Highlanders and 

 Russian peasants, and are considered 

 wholesome. Boiled in alum-water, they 

 furnish a dingy purple dye, and Linnaaus 

 states that they are used by the Laplanders 

 for dyeing otter and sable skins black. E. 

 rubrum, a native of the extreme south of 

 South America, has red berries, which are 

 said to be pleasant to eat. It is most 

 abundant along the sandy coast. Both 

 species are easy of cultivation as bog plants, 

 but are slow growers. French Camarine : 

 German Rauchbeere. [C. A. J.] 



EMPHYSEMATOSE. Bladder}', resem- 

 bling a bladder. 



EMPHYSOPUS. A name formerly 

 applied to a little perennial herb of the 

 composite family, which is common on 

 pasture lands in Tasmania, and in habit 

 and form of leaves a gcrod deal resembles 

 the common daisy. The flower-heads, how- 

 ever, supported on naked stalks, one to 

 three inches long, are not more than a 

 quarter of an inch in diameter, and the 

 leaves are clothed with a soft down. The 

 plant is now placed in Lage>*ophora : 

 which see. [A. A. BJ 



EMPLEUROSMA. The name of a small 

 shrub of the rue family, a native of Swan 

 river, and having leathery linear leaves, 

 rolled under at the margins, and unisexual 

 flowers, the males with a four-parted 

 calyx, and eight stamens, whose anthers 



