LXIX. EMPETRACER. Bel, 
its union with Muphorbiacee, to which it might in other respects 
be technically referred. 
I. EMPETRUM. CROWBERRY, 
Low, creeping, heath-like shrubs, with small, crowded, entire, evergreen 
leaves, and minute, axillary, dicecious flowers. Perianth of 6 scales in 2 
rows, with 6 external, similar, but smaller bracts. Stamens 3 in the male 
flowers. Style in the females very short, divided into 6 or more radiating 
and toothed or divided stigmas. Ovary with as many cells as stigmas, 
and a single erect ovule in each. Fruit a small berry-like drupe, contain- 
ing several small 1-seeded stones. Embryo slender, in a copious albumen. 
1. B.nigrum, Linn. (fig. 898). Common Crowberry.—A _ glabrous 
plant, forming spreading, thickly branched tufts, like those of Loiseleuria, 
often a foot in diameter; the crowded evergreen leaves scarcely 2 lines 
long with their edges rolled back as in Heaths. Flowers sessile, very 
minute, the stamens of the males protruding from the perianth on slender 
filaments. Fruit black, globular, about the size of a pea. 
In mountain heaths and bogs, in Europe, Asia, and North America, very 
abundant at high northern and Arctic latitudes, and quite alpine in southern 
Europe and central Asia. Common in Scotland, in northern and western 
England, and in Ireland. FJ. spring. 
LXX. CALLITRICHINEA. THE CALLITRICHE 
FAMILY. 
Aquatic, floating herbs, with opposite or whorled leaves, 
and minute unisexual flowers in their axils. No _ perianth. 
Ovary and fruit either 1-seeded or 4-lobed, with 1 seed in each 
lobe. 
Two genera, each of a single species. Allied in many respects to 
Haloragee, they are sometimes placed next to or amongst them ; but there 
is no perianth, and they are therefore more frequently enumerated amongst 
anomalous Monochlamyde. [These genera are regarded by others as form- 
ing two families, of which Callitrichine@ have been referred, both to 
Euphorbiacee and to Haloragee. The position of Ceratophylium is quite 
uncertain |. es 
I. CERATOPHYLLUM. CERATOPHYLL. 
Leaves whorled and dissected. Stamens several. Style 1. Ovary and 
fruit entire, with a single seed. 
1. ©. demersum, Linn. (fig. 899). Common Ceratophyll, Hornwort. 
—A glabrous perennial, the stems floating like those of a Myriophyllum, 
and the leaves are whorled in the same manner, but instead of being pin- 
nately divided they are twice or thrice forked, with linear often fine and 
subulate segments, usually slightly toothed on the edge. Flowers small, 
sessile in the axils of the leaves, each one surrounded by a whorl of minute 
bracts, but without any real perianth; the males consisting of 12 to 20 
sessile oblong anthers, the females of a small ovary with a simple style. 
Fruit an ovoid, slightly compressed nut, 2 to 3 lines long, either 
two sharp species (C. demersum proper), or with a few tubercles or prickles 
