White and Greenish 



widely open flower to droop from the tip, thus protecting its pre- 

 cious contents from rain, and from crawling pilferers, to whom a 

 pendent blossom is as inaccessible as a hanging bird"s nest is to 

 snakes. This five-petalled waxen flower, half an inch across or 

 over, with its ten white, yellow-tipped stamens, and green, club- 

 shaped pistil projecting from a conspicuous round ovary, never 

 nods more than six inches above the ground, often at only half 

 that height. When there is no longer need for the stalk to crook, 

 that is to say, after the flower has begun to fruit, it gradually 

 straightens itself out so that the little seed-capsule, with the style 

 and its five-lobed stigma still persistent, is held erect. The thin, 

 rounded, finely notched leaves, measuring barely an inch in length, 

 are clustered in whorls next the ground. Whether one comes 

 upon colonies of this gregarious little plant, or upon a lonely 

 straggler, the "single delight" {moneses), as Dr. Gray called the 

 solit'ary flower, is one of the joys of a tramp through the summer 

 woods. 



Indian Pipe; Ice-plant; Ghost-flower; ..^ 

 Corpse-plant 



{Monotropa itniflora) Indian-pipe family 



Flowers — Solitary, smooth, waxy, white (rarely pink), oblong-bell 

 shaped, nodding from the tip of a fleshy, white, scaly scape 

 4 to 10 in. tall. Calyx of 2 to 4 early-falling white sepals; 4 

 or 5 oblong, scale-like petals; 8 or 10 tawny, hairy sta- 

 mens; a 5-celled, egg-shaped ovary, narrowed into the short, 

 thick style. Leaves: None, /^oo/s; A mass of brittle fibres, 

 from which usually a cluster of several white scapes arises. 

 Fruit: A 5-valved, many-seeded, erect capsule. 



Preferred Na/^i/a^— Heavily shaded, moist, rich woods, especially 

 under oak and pine trees. 



Flotver-ing Season — June — August. 



Distribution — Almost throughout temperate North America. 



Colorless in every part, waxy, cold, and clammy, Indian pipes 

 rise like a company of wraiths in the dim forest that suits them 

 well. Ghoulish parasites, uncanny saprophytes, for their matted 

 roots prey either on the juices of living plants or on the decaying 

 matter of dead ones, how weirdly beautiful and decorative they 

 are! The strange plant grows also in Japan, and one can readily 

 imagine how fascinated the native artists must be by its chaste 

 charms. 



Yet to one who can read the f^ices of flowers, as it were, it 

 stands a branded sinner. Doubtless its ancestors were industri- 

 ous, honest creatures, seeking their food in the soil, and digesting 



233 



