E M P E T R U M nigrum.
Black Crow or Crake-Berry.
D IO E C IA Triandria.
Gen. Char. Male, Cal. in 3 divifions, Petals 3,
Stam. capillary, 3 to 9. Female, Cal. and Pet.
as in male. Stigmas 9. Berry with 9 feeds.
S pec. Char. Plant procumbent.
Syn. Empetrum nigrum. Linn. Sp. PI. 1450.
Hudf. 431. With. 176. Dick/. H. Sice. fafc.
2. 10.
E. montanum, fru&u nigro. Raii Syn. 444.
NATIVE of mountainous heaths in the northern counties,
flowering in May, and ripening its berries in Auguft. It
clothes many a thoufand barren acres, either on a moorifh or
ftony foil; and its fruit, which has a mild flavour of the elderberry,
affords fuftenance to ptarmigans, groufe, partridges, and
even to the hardy highlander himfelf, Linnaeus in his Flora
Lapponica informs us that too great a quantity of this fruit oc-
cafions the head-ach, and alfo that the plant bears equally well
the extremeft cold of the north of Sweden and the fulphureous
fmoke of the copper mines of that country, in which fcarcely
any other vegetable will grow.
f he Item is fhrubby, reddifh, much branched, procumbent,
the young branches only Handing upright. Leaves irregularly
imbricated, fpreading, on fhort foot-ftalks, oblong, blunt, flat
on the upper fide, their margins bent back fo as to meet beneath,
and thefe margins are ciliated, every other part being
fmooth. Flowers axillary, folitary, on fhort ftalks, with a few
fmall fcaly bradteae. Calyx of 3 roundifh leaves. Petals moftly
3» oblong, of a dull red. Stamina long and flender, 3 according
to moft authors, but Mr. Sowerby found 9, accompanied
by an extraordinary number of petals, in fpecimens fent by
Mr. Templeton from Ireland. Female flowers on a different
plant, whofe Item is of a brighter red. Their calyx and corolla
like the male. Germen fuperior, round. Style we think
Ample, with 9 ftellate ftigmas. Berry with 9 feeds, clofely
arranged in a globular form. Linnaeus mentions having found
a few hermaphrodite plants, which made him at firft place this
genus in the Polygarnia clafs,