PYKOI.A ELLIPTICA. WIXTEROREEN ; SIIIN-LEAF. I27 



account of tlie resemblance to the leaves and flowers ot a pear- 

 tree " ; and our modern authors, as, for instance, Dr. Gray, tell 

 us that the name is "a diminutive of Pyrns, the pear-tree, from 

 some fancied resemblance in the foliage, which is not obvious." 



The common name " Wintergreen " came to us from Europe, 

 where it is applied to the P. rotundifolia, which is a well- 

 known plant in the northern part of that continent. Dr. Prior, 

 in his work on the popular names of British plants, thus ac- 

 counts for it : " Wintergreen is a name adopted by Turner 

 (an old herbalist), from the German Wintcr-Griin of the Ortus 

 Sanitatis. The Danish Winter-gror.t means the ivy, and it is 

 probable this latter, the ivy, is the rightful claimant of the name, 

 as being so conspicuously green when the trees are most of them 

 bare of leaf." Any one, however, who has seen the Pyrola in 

 early spring will immediately recognize that it is quite as much 

 entitled to the name as the ivy. It is often the only living green 

 thing among the dead tree leaves of the previous autumn, and 

 serves admirably well to relieve the monotonous brown color of 

 the forests, where it loves to dwell. The habit which the plant 

 has of growing under oaks and other forest trees is alluded to 

 by Bryant in the following lines from the pretty poem entitled 

 " The Strange Lady " : — 



" Away into the forest depths by pleasant paths they go, 

 He with his rifle on his arm, the lady with her bow, 

 Where cornels arch their cool dark boughs o'er beds of wintergreen, 

 And never at his father's door again was Albert seen.'' 



In reference to the second English name given at the head 

 of this chapter, Dr. Darlington says of Pyrola clliptica that its 

 leaves " are a popular application to sores, as the common name 

 (Shin-Leaf) would indicate." The word "shin," in its proper 

 sense, really applies only to the front part of the lower bone of 

 the leg, or tibia, but by the English peasantry the term " shin- 

 plaster " is used for any kind of a plaster, without regard to the 

 part of the body to which it is applied, and hence Dr. Darling- 



