MONOTROPE^— BIRD'S-NEST TRIBE 223 



Order LI. MONOTROPE^— BIRDS-NEST TRIBE. 



Sepals 2 — 6, not falling off; corolla regular, deeply divided into as many- 

 lobes or petals as there are sepals ; stamens tAvice as many as the lobes of the 

 corolla ; anthers opening by pores ; ovary 4 — 5-celled, sometimes imperfectly 

 so ; style 1, often bent ; stigma usually lobed ; fruit a dry capsule ; seeds 

 chaffy, numerous. This order contains but three British genera, and no 

 plants of any economical importance, though the Pyrolas are veiy pretty 

 and fragrant flowers. The leaves are simple, smooth, veined, and often ever- 

 green. 



1. MONESES {Mortises). — Petals slightly connected at the base ; filaments 

 awl-shaped ; stigma 5-cleft ; margins of the valves of the capsule without any 

 web. Name from moms, one, or alone, from the solitary flowers and combined 

 petals. 



2. Winter-green (Fyrola). — Petals 5, distinct ; filaments awl-shaped ; 

 stigma 5-lobed ; margins of the valves of the capsule connected by a web. 

 Name from Pi/rus, a pear, from a fancied similarity between its flowers and 

 the pear blossom. 



3. Bird's-nest {Mondtropa). — Sepals 4 — 5 ; petals 4 — 5, swollen at the 

 base ; stamens 8 — 10 ; anthers 1-celled ; stigma flat, not lobed. Name from 

 the Greek monos, one, and trepo, to turn, because the flowers all turn one 

 way. 



1. MoNESES (Moneses). 



Large-ilowered Moneses (il/. grandiflum). — Leaves nearly round ; 

 flowers solitary, drooping ; perennial. This plant, which is also known as 

 Pyrola uniflora, is a very lovely though rare ornament of the mountainous 

 pine-woods of Scotland. It is a very singular plant, with scarcely any stem, 

 bearing several roundish, stalked, and slightly serrated leaves, which are 

 smooth and veiny ; and having a single flower-stalk, from three to six inches 

 high, which in July has a large, nearly white, sweetly -scented blossom, which, 

 as Sir J. E. Smith observes, is one of the most curious and elegant of British 

 flowers. Dr. E. D. Clarke remarks of it, when in Denmark : " Among the 

 woods of Hunneberg, and beneath the shade of fir-trees, we found that 

 iDcautiful plant, the Pyrola uniflora, rearing its pale, pendent, and solitary 

 blossom near to the base of the mountain. As it was the first time any of 

 us had seen this plant, and as it afforded the first specimen for our botanical 

 collection, the sight of it was a gratification to all of us. The flowers were 

 snow-white, and they had the fragrance of the lily of the valley." Although 

 this species of Moneses has been found in the south of France and the north 

 of Italy, it is so truly an inhabitant of alpine regions, that it was neA^er 

 observed in Britain until the year 1783, when it was noticed for the first 

 time in Moray, and in the remotest isles of the Hebrides. Before it expands 

 its cups, the blossoms are of a globular form ; and it always hangs its head 

 like a snowdrop. 



2. Winter-green {Pyrola). 



1. Round-leaved Winter-green {P. rotundifdlia). — Leaves nearly 

 round, entire, or with the margins slightly notched ; flowers in racemes ; 



