288 PYROLACEAE 



globose and obtusely 5-angled. Ovules anatropous, numerous on axillary placentae. 

 Styles wholly united or sometimes distinct, short or slender, often declined. Stigmas 

 5-lobed, with short stout lobes. Fruit a loculicidally dehiscent capsule, depressed- 

 globose, S-angled. Seeds minute, numerous, with a loose testa and a large aril. 



A family of S genera and about 25 species, widely distributed in the extratropical regions of the northern 

 hemisphere and with the center of distribution in North America. 



Flowers racemose; petals concave and more or less converging; capsules dehiscent from below upwards. 



1. Pyrola. 

 Flowers solitary or corymbose; petals spreading; stigmas peltate; capsules dehiscent from above downwards. 



Flowers solitary; subacaulescent herbs; leaves suborbicular. 2. Moncses. 



Flowers corymbose or umbellate; suffruticose plants; leaves ovate to lanceolate. 3. Chimaphila. 



1. PYROLA [Tourn.] L. Sp. PI. 396. 1753. 



Perennial glabrous herbs with creeping rootstocks, the stems above ground, short. 

 Leaves clustered at the bases of the stems or sometimes wanting, evergreen, rather thick, 

 veiny, the veins ending in the sinuses of the teeth or protruding as a mucro. Scapes 

 usually with 1 to several scales similar to the floral bracts. Flowers in a single terminal 

 raceme, short-pedicelled and mostly nodding. Sepals 5, slightly united at base. Corolla 

 campanulate or hemispheric; petals 5, distinct, concave, white to greenish or purple. 

 Stamens 10; filaments more or less dilated at base, incurved. Pistils of 5 united carpels; 

 style deflexed at base, then curved upwards and usually thickened towards the apex, there 

 dilated into a collar with 5 erect papilla-like stigmas within, or style straight without a 

 collar and capped by a peltate stigma with 5 spreading papillae borne on the margin. 

 Fruit depressed-globose, 5-valved, dehiscent from tlie base upwards, the valves connected 

 by arachnoid threads. [Name Latin, diminutive of Pyrus, the pear, from the similarity 

 of the leaves.] 



A genus of about IS species, natives of the northern hemisphere, mainly North America. Type species, 

 Fyrola rotundifolia L. 



Style strongly deflexed at base then turned upwards, with a thickened truncate end forming a collar with S erect 

 or connivent papillae within; filaments declined and curved upwards, bearing the anthers above the style. 

 Green leaves normally developed. 



Petals purple or pink; sepals much longer than broad. 



Leaves distinctly mucronulate-denticulate by the prolongation of the veins at the margin, acute at 

 apex, firm, shining on the upper surface. 1. P. bractcata. 



Leaves not denticulate, rounded at apex, thin, dull on the upper surface. 



2. P. asarifolia incarnata. 

 Petals white or greenish white, rarely pinkish; calyx-lobes about as long as broad (varying from a little 



shorter to a little longer). 



Leaves suborbicular, rounded at apex, the margins not chartaceous. 3. P. chlorantha. 



Leaves ovate to oval, acutish at apex, or spatulate and obtuse. 



Leaves usually broadest below the middle, ovate to oval, distinctly mottled on the upper surface. 



4. P. picta. 

 Leaves obovate to oblanceolate or spatulate, not mottled. 5. P. dentata. 



Green leaves wanting, or 1 or 2 and much-reduced. 6. P. aphylla. 



Style straight, without a collar; stigma peltate, broader than the style, the papillae marginal and spreading; sta- 

 mens all connivent around the pistil. 



Disk none; petals without nectaries; styles short, shorter than the capsule; leaves crenulate. 



7. P. minor. 

 Disk present, 10-lobed; petals with tubercle-like nectaries; style elongate, longer than the mature capsule; 

 leaves serrulate. 8. P. secunda. 



1. Pyrola bracteata Hook. Large or Oregon Wintergreen. Fig. 3651. 



Pyrola bracteata Hook. Fl. Bor. Amer. 2: 47. 1834. 



Pyrola rotundifolia var. bracteata A. Gray, Bot. Calif. 1 : 460. 1876. 



Pyrola asarifolia var. bracteata Jepson, Fl. Calif. 3: 59. 1939. 



Perennial, the stem above ground 5 cm. or less high ; scape 2-4 dm. high, with 1 or 2 scari- 

 ous bracts below the inflorescence. Leaves all basal with petioles about as long as the blades, 

 oval to broadl}' ovate or suborbicular, 3-8 cm. long, acute or acutish or rarely rounded at apex, 

 rounded to subcordate at base or rarely slightly decurrent on the petiole, coriaceous, dark green 

 and shining above, paler and brownish or reddish beneath, distinctly mucronulate-denticulate, 

 with the teeth formed by the excurrent veins; floral bracts conspicuous, 1-1.5 cm. long, broadly 

 lanceolate and acuminate, reddish ; sepals triangular-lanceolate, 4-5 mm. long ; petals ovate to 

 obovate, 6-8 mm. long, rose-purple or dull red ; anthers reddish or yellow in age ; style strongly 

 declined, 6-8 mm. long in flower, 8-9 mm. in fruit, slightly thickened below the collar ; capsule 

 7-8 mm. broad. 



Wet places in open coniferous forests. Humid Transition Zone; widely distributed in the Coast Ranges and 

 western slopes of the Cascade Mountains from southern British Columbia to Mendocino County, California; and 

 in scattering localities in the mountains of eastern Washington and Oregon, eastward to northern Idaho and 

 western Montana. Type locality: "N.W. Coast." Collected by Scouler. May-July. 



