Notes on some of our Native Plants. 25 



gardener of that place. That plant was gathered at Newton 

 Falls, and I believe survived several seasons, under cultiva- 

 tion. The next time I saw the Chimaphila maculata, it was 

 growing in a native locality on the banks of the Hudson 

 River, at Fishkill Landing. It disappeared from that spot 

 shortly after, where I have since sought for it in vain. Then, 

 in the rich beech woods of Pennsylvania, among the dry, old, 

 brown leaves which covered the ground, some years after- 

 wards, I detected a patch of it, forming a conspicuous object. 

 In the month of October, 1S45, I found another similar group 

 of plants of this species, growing in the chestnut woods which 

 are so common at Northborough, m this State. Visiting this 

 locality during the past spring, I brought home with me a 

 little clump of the roots, to attempt its cultivation. Acci- 

 dentally, as it were, a single specimen came in my way, while 

 walking with a friend in the close vicinity of my residence, 

 growing near the footpath which led through a thick piece of 

 brushwood. This was in flower, and was the first specimen 

 in that condition that I ever found. The spot was carefully 

 marked, and I trust to see its root increasing from year to 

 year, or to ascertain whether it disappears normally from any 

 habitat, as do some other kinds of plants, found occasionally 

 only, and at rare intervals. 



The roots of the Spotted wintergreen, (Chimaphila macu- 

 lata,) are long and creeping, extending just beneath the sur- 

 face of the earth, and, when found in old woods, insinuating 

 their fibres among the decayed vegetable remains which lie 

 on the ground. The stems are tough, woody, inclining or 

 tending partially to an upright position, of a dark red color, 

 bearing two or three partial verticils of leaves, which, in the 

 specimen before me, are in threes, with acutely and sharply 

 serrate edges, each leaf tapering to an acute point, and fur- 

 nished at base with a short petiole, into which the leaf gradr 

 ually changes. Beneath these regular whorls may be seen, 

 on some of the stems, a pair of ovate and smaller leaves. 

 The lower surface of the leaves is of a dull purplish hue, 

 while the upper surface is smooth, dark green, marked, 

 throughout its entire length, with a broad white line, from 

 which shorter and narrower ones acutely diverge, somewhat 

 in the form and figure of a venation. A few little bracts may 



VOL. XIV. NO. I. 3 



