Family 4. PYROLACEAE 
By Per AXEL RYDBERG 
Perennial plants with creeping scaly rootstocks. Stem above ground 
short, sometimes more or less suffruticose, but of short duration, producing 
a short internode and a cluster or false verticil of leaves each year. Leaves 
alternate but closely approximate, petioled, evergreen, mostly coriaceous, 
usually serrate or crenate, without stipules. Inflorescence racemose, corym- 
bose, or subumbellate; peduncles with 1-5 scales. Flowers bracteate, perfect. 
Calyx of 5 sepals, only slightly if at all united. Corolla regular or nearly so, 
quincuncial in estivation, of 5 distinct petals, white, greenish-white, pink, or 
purplish, hypogynous. Stamens 10, hypogynous; filaments often more or less 
dilated at the base; anthers 2-celled, deeply furrowed between the sacs, usually 
attached at or near the middle, usually produced at the proximal end into two 
tubes, opening at the end by round or oblong pores, after anthesis reflexed so 
that the pores become distal. Gynoecium of 5 united carpels; ovary sub- 
globose, 5-celled and obtusely 5-angled; cells many-ovuled; styles wholly 
united, short or elongate; stigma with 5 papillae or 5-rayed. Capsule um- 
bilicate, obtusely 5-angled, 5-celled, loculicidal. Seed very numerous; aril 
large, reticulate; albumen fleshy. 
Capsule dehiscent from below upwards, the edges of the valves connected by cob- 
webby threads; petals concave and more or less converging; flowers race- 
miose., . 
Style strongly deflexed at the base, then curved upwards; stigmas much 
narrower than the thickened truncate end of the style, which forms a collar, 
with 5 erect or connivent papillae; filaments declined and curved up, bearing 
the anthers above the style. 1. Pyrona. 
Style straight, without a collar; stigma peltate, broader than the style; 
papillae marginal, spreading; stamens all equally connivent around the 
pistil. 
Hypogynous disk none; petals without nectaries; leaves crenulate; style 
in our species short. - 2, ERXLEBENIA. 
Hypogynous disk present, 10-lobed; petals each with 2 tubercle-like 
nectaries; leaves serrate; style elongate. 3. RaMISCHIA, 
Capsule dehiscent from above downward, without cobwebby threads; petals 
spreading; stigma peltate, broader than the style. 
Subacaulescent herbs; flowers solitary; stigma with 5 (rarely 4) large marginal 
papillae; leaf-blades thin, suborbicular. 4. MoNESEs. 
Suffruticose plants; flowers corymbose or subumbellate; stigma merely 5- 
rayed and 5-crenate, without papillae; leaf-blades ovate, lanceolate, or 
oblanceolate, coriaceous. 5. CHIMAPHILA. 
1. PYROLA (Tourn.) L. Sp. Pl. 396. 1753. 
Thelaia Alef. Linnaea 28: 33. 1856. 
Perennial herbs with rootstocks. Stems above ground short, usually bearing a cluster of 
leaves. Scape usually with 1 or more scales, similar to the bracts of the inflorescence. Leaves 
mostly petioled, evergreen, rather thick, veiny, the veins either stopping in the sinuses of the 
teeth, or prolonged into a mucro. Inflorescence racemose. Flowers mostly nodding, short- 
pedicelied. Sepals 5, slightly united. Corolla campanulate or hemispheric; petals 5, dis- 
tinct, usually elliptic to orbicular, white, greenish, or purplish. Stamens 10; filaments subu- 
late, ustrally more or less dilated at the base, incurved; anthers oblong, dehiscent by pores at 
the ends of more or less developed tubes. Pistil of 5 united carpels; ovary with 5 rounded 
angles, destitute of glands; style deflexed at the base, then curved upwards and usually gradu- 
Vor 29, Part 1, 1914] 21 
