_Crowberry Family_
Low evergreen shrubs with narrow nearly sessile leaves jointed to short
pulvini, channelled on the lower side by the revolute margins and small
monœcious, diœcious or rarely polygamous flowers; sepals, petals, and
stamens each 3, fruit a black, berry-like drupe.
[Sidenote: =Empetrum nigrum= L. _Black Crowberry._]
Smooth or the young shoots hairy, usually much branched, the branches
diffusely spreading, 2—10 inches long. Leaves crowded, dark green,
linear-oblong, thick and obtuse, about ¼ of an inch long with strongly
revolute, roughish margins. Flowers very small, purplish; stamens
exserted; berry nearly ¼ of an inch in diameter, black.
Frequent throughout the Rockies in damp woods, especially those of the
“Jack Pine” where it frequently forms a considerable part of the forest
floor, in dense, close mats.