Shrubs low, evergreen, heathlike, with crowded, narrow leaves and small, diclinous flowers. Calyx of 4 to 6, hypogynous, persistent, imbricated scales, the inner often colored. Stamens 2 or 3, pollen grains quaternate. Ovary free, 2 to 9-celled,

2 to 9-ovuled. Fruit fleshy, with as many 1-soeded nuts. Seed ascending, albuminous, radicle inferior.

Genera 3, species 4, natives of N. Europe, N. America and the Straits of Magellan. Properties, acidulous. The berries are nutritious.

Genera

1. EM'PETRUM, Tourn. Crowberry. (Gr. upon a stone; from the places of its natural growth.) Flowers . Perianth consisting of 2 series of scales, the 3 inner petaloid; Stamens 3, anthers pendulous on long filaments. Stigma subsessile, 6 to 9-rayed; drupe globular, with 6 to 9 seedlike nutlets. - Alpine undershrubs.

E. nigrum L. Procumbent branches smooth; lvs. imbricated, linear-oblong, obtuse at each end, nearly smooth, with a revolute margin. - A small, prostrate shrub, found on the granite rocks of the White Mts. of N. H., and the calcareous mountains of Vt. The stem is 1 to 3 or 4f long, much branched and closely covered all around with evergreen leaves, which are 2 or 3" long, half a line wide. Flowers very small, reddish, crowded in the axils of the upper lvs. Berries black, not ill-flavored. May, Jn.

2. CORE'MA, Don. (Oakesia, Tuckerman.) (Gr. a broom; from the resemblance.) Flowers , or . Perianth of 5 or 6

bractlets, the 3 inner sepaloid. Stamens 3, sometimes 4, with ex-serted filaments. Ovary 3 or 4-celled; style filiform, 3 or 4-cleft, with narrow stigmas; drupe globular, minute, with 3 or 4 nutlets. - diffuse undershrubs. Lvs. linear.

C. Conradii Torr. Diffuse, very slender, glabrous; lvs. linear, revolute on the margin, coriaceous; fruit dry. - Sandy and rocky plains, here and there, from Can. ? Me. to N. J. Sts. If high, with a reddish-ash-colored bark, with short, verticillate branches. Lvs. evergreen, numerous, spiral or imperfectly verticillate, 3" long, linear, revolute. Fls. in terminal clusters of 10 to 15, with brownish scales and purple stamens and styles. - Plants with are less common than those with or . Mar., Apr.

3. CERATI'OLA, Mx. Sand-hill Rosemary. (A Latin diminutive, from a horn; referring to the stigmas.) Flowers 8 . Perianth of 6 to 8 imbricated, concave, fimbriate scales, the two or 4 inner membranous. Stamens 2, exserted, anthers 2-celled, roundish. Ovary 2-celled; style short; stigmas 4 or 6, spreading, toothed; fruit a drupe with 2-sced-like nuts. - A shrub with verticillate branches, crowded, acerous lvs. and axillary, sessile fls.

C. ericoides Mx. - Hills or plains sandy or gravelly, Augusta, Ga. to Apalachi-cola, Fla. Shrub evergreen, 3 to 6f high. Young branchlets downy. Lvs. in close whorls of 3s and 4s, about 6" long, rigid, acute. Fls. lateral, stigmas purple. Fr. yellowish, small, astringent. Aug., Sept.