XVII. 2. THE PARTRIDGE BERRY. 351 



gular mode of flowering, and by its flowers appearing at a season 

 when few others are to be seen. It grows well in common 

 garden soil, in situations moderately moist, and is readily prop- 

 agated by seeds, by cuttings or by layers. 



The characteristic properties of the family, particularly its 

 tonic power, undoubtedly reside in this plant. The inner bark 

 of the root, according to Elliot, is of an agreeable bitter, and is 

 often used, in the South, as a remedy for obstinate coughs. It 

 has been recommended in affections of the skin. Other prop- 

 erties will probably be discovered. 



To another tribe, belongs a singular New England plant, 

 named in honor of Dr. John Mitchell, a botanist of Virginia, — 



XVII. 2. PARTRIDGE BERRY. MITCHELLA. L. 



A genus including two species of smooth, creeping, ever- 

 green plants, with opposite, ovate or rounded, short-stemmed 

 leaves, and axillary or terminal flowers, which in one species 

 are solitary, in the other in pairs, with their ovaries united. 

 The border of the calyx is conspicuous, four-toothed ; the co- 

 rolla funnel-shaped, with a slender tube four-lobed in the bor- 

 der ; four stamens, attached to the tube of the corolla ; ovary 

 four-celled, surmounted by a slender, long style, bearing four 

 stigmas ; fruit a berry, in one species round, in the other oblate- 

 globose, with four, one-seeded nuts. 



The Partridge Berry. Creeping Mitchella.. M. repens. L. 



Figured in Barton's Flora, III, Plate 95. 



A beautiful little creeping, evergreen plant, with its stem 

 trailing along the ground about the foot of trees, in deep, shady, 

 moist woods, in company, oftentimes, with Gaultheria, and the 

 equally beautiful Linnafa which it so much resembles. At dis- 

 tances, it throws down hair-like roots; its terminal branches 

 slightly ascending, and with the pairs of roundish leaves, 

 almost completely covering the ground, and forming a carpet, 

 enamelled in spring with the pearly, rose-colored, fragrant 

 twin-flowers, and in autumn with the bright scarlet berries. 

 The leaves are in twos, on short stalks, about the size of the 



