MITCHELLA PARTRIDGE-BERRY. 169 



in the throat of the corolla. Style filiform ; stigmas 4. Fruit baccate, 

 bright red, composed of the united ovaries of both flowers, each of which 

 contains 4 small horny, 1-seeded nutlets. It is edible but insipid. 



A small creeping, evergreen herb. Stems slender, b to 12 inches long, 

 branching and rooting at the joints and becoming matted upon the sur- 

 face of the ground. Leaves one-half inch long, opposite, roundish, dark 

 green and shining, generally marked with a central longitudinal line of a 

 lighter color, of a coriaceous texture. Flowers of two kinds, one with 

 stamens exserted and style included, the other with style exserted and 

 stamens included ; these different kinds of flowers occur in different plants. 

 The flowers are white, about one-half inch long, and though generally with 

 their parts in fours, not unfrequently have them in fives, or even in sixes ; 

 they are produced in June. The whole plant turns black in drying. 



Habitat. In moist woods, about the roots of trees, often forming a 

 vivid green matting, variegated in autumn by the bright red berries, the 

 latter often persisting till spring. Everywhere common. 



Part Used. The herb not official. 



Comtit uents. Unknown. 



Preparations. It is administered in infusion or decoction. 



Medical Properties and Uses. The medical properties of this plant are 

 altogether problematical. It is said to be astringent, diuretic, and partu- 

 rient. Squaws are said to use a decoction of it for some weeks previous 

 to their parturition, in order to render their delivery safe and easy ; white 

 women sometimes use slippery elm for the same purpose, and probably 

 with about the same amount of benefit. 



COMPOSIT/E. 



Character of the Order. Flowers, relatively small, collected in a dense 

 head upon a common receptacle and surrounded by an involucre of bracts, 

 the whole resembling a single flower, and termed by the older botanists 

 compound. The separate flowers : calyx-tube coherent with the ovary, its 

 limb, termed pappus, composed of bristles, plumose hairs, scales, or even 

 minute leaflets, though sometimes absent entirely or reduced to a mere 

 margin. Corolla usually composed of 5 united petals, either ligulate or 

 tubular. Stamens 5, rarely fewer, their anthers linear and united into a 

 tube, sometimes with an appendage at the top or at the base. Ovary 1- 

 celled, 1-ovuled ; style in the fertile flowers 2-cleft, the lobes often fur- 

 nished with hairs for collecting pollen, the stigmatic surfaces in the form of 

 elevated lines along the inner margins. Fruit an achenium crowned with 

 the pappus. 



A very large order of herbs, rarely shrubs or trees, comprising about 

 one-tenth of the flowering plants of the world. The flowers occur in many 

 different forms. When all of them are perfect the head is said to be 



