154 Rhodora [AvavsT 
seldom more than three or four inches in height, are purplish brown 
in color, and clothed with scale-like scarious bracts of a bright brown 
color, very closely resembling the dry pine needles in which and under 
which it delights to grow. ‘The flowers are light rose-purple, of a 
most delightful fragrance, clover-like, I should say, perfuming the air 
for some distance around. Even in drying, the plant retains its odor 
for a considerable length of time. 
It comes into bloom, possibly the earliest of any of the plants of its 
kind, being found generally in full bloom during the first week of April. 
It was not long after finding the plant, that I learned how it was possible 
for it to bloom so early, when, two or three years later, while gathering 
chestnuts, I found a nice clump of the plant with blossoms already 
apparently fully developed, seemingly only awaiting a few warm days 
to open. 
Last year, a botanical friend announced to me, what he considered 
a most important discovery: — he had discovered that the fruit of 
Monotropsis was not a capsule, as stated by Gray, but a berry, and that 
it ripened in the fall. I had never seen the fruit so was not well pre- 
pared to attack the assertion, especially, as he insisted that he knew 
what he was talking about, and while neither of us had specimens to 
prove our assertions; however, I was sure that what he saw was the 
fully developed flower buds for the coming spring, and awaited with 
impatience the fruiting of the plant this year. ‘Thanks to wishing to 
supply a friend with specimens of the fruit, I kept the task in mind, 
and six weeks after the first flowers appeared, found still a few withered 
up fruit stalks with capsules already dehisced. 
From the above, I should advise that searchers for Monotropsis 
look for the plant during the early part of April, especially in pine 
woods. One of its companion plants is Monotropa IH ypopitys. It is 
no doubt most abundant in our Coastal Plain, but сап also be found 
farther inland in the Piedmont region in mixed woods, most generally 
under chestnuts. Four or five weeks later the fruit is ripe. Search 
in the same localities in early fall will reveal the plant with flower 
buds quite developed, which no doubt accounts for its early blooming 
the following spring. 
BALTIMORE, MARYLAND. 
