ORDER MONOGYNIA. 231 



At b, Fig. 114, is a representation of a flower of the Saxi- 

 fraga, a very extensive genus ; one species of which, an exotic, 

 sometimes vulgarly called beef-steak, is much cultivated as a 

 green house plant ; it is very hardy ; its leaves are roundish 

 and hairy : it sends forth creeping shoots. 



In shady woods, whe*re the soil is loose and rich, we find in 

 June and July, the winter-green (Gaultheria), a perennial plant 

 which grows to the height of eight or ten inches ; the pleasant 

 taste of the leaves of this plant, and the still finer flavour of ite 

 fruit, are well known ; the drooping blossom is also very deli- 

 cate and beautiful, consisting of a bell-form corolla, (not unlike 

 the lily of the valley,) the colour of which is white, tinged with 

 pink. Though you may have often enjoyed eating the fruit 

 and leaves of the winter-green, you will experience a delight 

 which this mere pleasure of sense could not have afforded, 

 when in your botanical rambles in the woods, you chance 

 to meet with this plant in blossom, with its little flowers just 

 peeping out from a bed of dry leaves : you may then enjoy 

 the pleasure of a beautiful object of sight, with the higher en- 

 joyment of intellectual gratification, by tracing in it, not only 

 intrinsic beauty, but those characters which give it a definite 

 place in scientific arrangement. 



In the same natural family with the winter-green are two 

 genera, Pyrola and Chimaphila, which by some botanists have 

 been included under one ; but they appear to be sufficiently 

 distinct from each other to constitute a separate genus. These 

 plants belong to the natural order Bicornes, or two horns ; 

 alluding to the two protuberances like straight horns, which 

 appear on their anthers. The heath in the 8th class is of the 

 same natural family, as also the whortleberry (Vaccinium), 

 which contains a great many species ; the Europeans place 

 this genus in the class Octandria, but an American botanist* 

 says, " that of twenty-five species in our country, not one is 

 found with eight stamens, and in Europe only three species 

 are known with that number." He very properly inquires, 

 whether all our American species ought to be misplaced on 

 account of those few European species. The cranberry (Oxy- 

 coccus), which was formerly considered a species of the same 

 genus as the whortleberry, as it has but eight stamens, is 

 removed into the eighth class. Among the different species of 

 the whortleberry is one with blue berries, another with very 

 black berries, and the bilberry, which is a large shrub from 

 five to eight feet high. 



* Eaton. 



Winter-green and other plants of the family Bicornes Genus Vacciniurn. 



