WILD, OR NATIVE FLOWERS. 



47 



The Round-leaved Lesser VxKO'LK—Pyrola rotuiidifolia (L.), v, 



iucai-nata (Gray). 



is a far more attractive flower — fragrant with a few sweet pink blossoms 

 and small round or kidney-shaped dark green leaves. Like the sweet 

 Violet of old country hedgerows it betrays its presence by its fine perfume, 

 though often deep hidden among the mosses and weeds which are 

 found in the peat-bogs where it grows. We have yet another Pyrola 

 with round green bell-shaped flowers and dark tipped anthers. This is 

 Pyrola cJiloi-aiitlia^ (Swartz.) 



Though we have none of the Heaths that clothe the hills and com- 

 mon-lands of Scotland and England, we have a lai:ge number of beautiful 

 and highly ornamental, as well as useful plants and flowering shrubs 

 belonging to the Natural Order Ericaceae, which are widely diffused all 

 over the Northern and Eastern portions of the Continent ; wherever there 

 exists a similarity in climate, soil and altitude of the land, there we may 

 expect to find members of the same Natural Orders. Thus we find spread 

 over the Northern and Eastern portions of this Continent, plants that are 

 common to northern European countries ; we have representatives of 

 many familiar flowers, belonging to such families as the Lily, Rose, Violet, 

 Phlox, Saxifrage, Mint, Dogwood, Pyrola, and Campanula, in fact we 

 cannot enumerate the half of what we recognize in our woodlands and 

 plains. It is true that the eye of the botanist will discover some differences 

 in the species, but in most instances these are so little apparent that a 

 casual observer would not notice them. The Pyrola has its representa- 

 tive flower in England. The LiniKFa, in Norway. Our pretty 

 Smilacina bifolia, or " Wild Lily of the Valley," and our Low Cornel 

 are also found with many of our native Ferns, in that Northern land of 

 mountain, flood and forest. 



It is pleasant to recognize an old familiar flower, it is like the face 

 of an old friend in a foreign country, bringing back the memory of days 

 lang syne, when the flowers that we gathered in our childhood were a joy 

 and a delight to heart and eye. 



One-Flowered Pyrola — Moneses uniflora (Gray). 



This exquisitely scented flower is only found in the *shade of the 

 forest, in rich, black, leaf mould, where, like P. elliptica, it forms con- 

 siderable beds ; it is of evergreen habit. The leaves are of a dark 

 green and smooth surface, clustered at the base of short stems which 

 rise from the running root-stock, from the centre of each of which 

 rises one simple scape, bearing a gracefully nodding flower ; each 

 milk-white petal is elegantly scalloped ; the stamens, eight to ten, 

 are set close to the base of the petals ; the anthers are of a bright 



