N. ORD.—RUBIACE. 77 
GENUS.—MITCHELLA,* LINN, 
SEX. SYST.—TETRANDRIA MONOGYNIA. 
MITCHELLA. 
PARTRIDGE-BERRY. 
SYN.—MITCHELLA REPENS, LINN.; MITCHELLA UNDULATA, 8. & Z.; 
SYRINGA BACCIFERA, ETC., PLUK. 
COM. NAMES.—PARTRIDGE-BERRY, SQUA W-BERRY, SQUAW-VINE, TWO- 
EYED CHEQUER-BERRY, REEPING CHECKER-BERRY, WINTER- 
CLOVER, DEER-BERRY. 
A TINCTURE OF THE WHOLE FRESH PLANT, MITCHELLA REPENS, LINN. 
Description.—This pretty little plant, creeping about in the moss at the foot of 
our forest trees and decayed stumps, attains a growth of from 6 to 14 inches. oot 
cylindrical, branched, horizontal, and noduled at the insertion of the tufted, oppo- 
site rootlets. Stem glabrous, branching widely, and rooting at each axilla. Leaves 
orbicular-cordate or oval and subcordate, sometimes having a whitish line over the 
midrib; dark, evergreen, slender, petioled; sépu/es minute, somewhat triangular 
awl-shaped. Jnflorescence terminal; flowers in pairs with united ovaries, some- 
times solitary and double (fig. 3); the flowers on one plant may have included 
stamens and an exserted style, while another show an included style and exserted 
stamens. This fact has led Mr. Thos. Meehan} to consider the species dicecious. 
The first form, he alleges, to be that of the female; the last, the male plant. As 
far as my observation extends, I have as yet been unable to discover a plant that 
bore no fruit, and all parts examined appear to be fully developed internally as 
well as externally. Pduncle short, or, in the double form, almost wanting. Calyx 
4-toothed. Corolla slender, funnel-form ; limb 4-lobed ; lobes spreading or reflexed, 
densely clothed with white hairs upon the upper face and in the throat and tube 
of the corolla, Stamens 4; filaments inserted upon the corolla ; anthers oblong. 
Style single filiform ; stigmas 4, linear. Fruzt a fleshy, edible, globose, baccate, 
double drupe, retaining the persistent teeth of both calices, and remaining fresh 
of the plant all winter; zzflets 8 (4 to each ovary), small, seedlike, and bony. 
Read description of the order, under Cephalanthus, 76. 
__The Partridge-berry is indigenous to North America, 
uthern limits of the United States, and has 
It grows in moist woods, especially those 
History and Habitat. 
from the Canadas to the extreme so 
been found in Mexico and Japan. — 
abounding in evergreens. It flowers in July. 
ee Ge ee es race 
an early and excellent American botanist. 
* In commemoration of Dr. John Mitchell, 
+ Am. Four. Phar, 1868, p. 554- 
