CROW BERRY 
Empetrum nigrum Linnaeus 
Crowbertty grows as a dense matted shrub in rocky or shady places, 
frequently in company with Rocky Mountain cassiope. It is easy to 
confuse it with the latter plant if the two ate not examined closely. 
The flowets ate inconspicuous but the black betries ate distinctive. 
The berries are much eaten by Arctic birds, although rather insipid to 
the human taste. This primitive plant is believed by some botanists 
to represent a survival, from some past geologic period, of a group 
ancestral to the present-day Heath Family. The Crowbetry Family, as 
it is called, has few living membets and most of these occupy isolated 
ateas, widely scattered over the earth, evidently relics of a former 
much greater abundance. 
This species is the most widespread member of the family, ranging 
from notthern New York, Maine, and Greenland westward to Michi- 
gan and California, and northward to Alaska. It occurs also in Asia 
and Europe. 
We gathered these specimens at Marble Canyon not far from the 
summit of Vermilion Pass, sixteen miles from Castle Station, Alberta, 
at an altitude of 5,000 feet. 
PLATE 382 
