White and Greenish 



Preferred Habitat — Cool woods, especially under evergreens. 

 Flowering Season — June — September. 



Distribution — Newfoundland to Georgia, westward to Michigan 

 and Manitoba. 



However truly the poets may make us feel the spirit of Na- 

 ture in their verse, can many be trusted when it comes to the 

 letter of natural science ? 



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



wrote Bryant; yet it is safe to say that nine colonies of this hardy 

 little plant out of every ten he saw were under evergreen trees, 

 not dogwoods. When the July sun melts the fragrance out of 

 the pines high overhead, and the dim, cool forest aisles are more 

 fragrant with commingled incense from a hundred natural censers 

 than any stone cathedral's, the wintergreen's little waxy bells 

 hang among the glossy leaves that form their aromatic carpet. 

 On such a day, in such a resting place, how one thrills with the 

 consciousness that it is good to be alive! 



Omnivorous children who are addicted to birch-chewing, pre- 

 fer these tender yellow-green leaves tinged with red, when newly 

 put forth in June — "Youngsters " rural New Englanders call them 

 then. In some sections a kind of tea is steeped from the leaves, 

 which also furnish the old-fashioned embrocation, wintergreen 

 oil. Late in the year the glossy bronze carpet of old leaves dotted 

 oyer with vivid red "berries" invites much trampling by hungry 

 birds and beasts, especially deer and bears, not to mention well- 

 fed humans. Coveys of Bob Whites and packs of grouse will 

 plunge beneath the snow for fare so delicious as this spicy, 

 mealy fruit that hangs on the plant till spring, of course for the 

 benefit of just such colonizing agents as they. Quite a different 

 species, belonging to another family, bears the true partridge-berry, 

 albeit the wintergreen shares with it a number of popular names. 

 In a strict sense neither of these plants produces a berry; for the 

 fruit of the true partridge vine (Mitchella repens) is a double drupe, 

 or stone bearer, each half containing four hard, seed-like nutlets; 

 while the wintergreen's so-called berry is merely the calyx grown 

 thick, fleshy, and gayly colored — only a coating for the five-celled 

 ovary that contains the minute seeds. Little baskets of winter- 

 green berries bring none too high prices in the fancy fruit and 

 grocery shops when we calculate how many charming plants 

 such unnatural use of them sacrifices. 



Closely allied to the wintergreen is the Red Bearberry, Kin- 

 nikinic, Bear's Grape, Fox-berry or Meal-berry, as it is variously 

 called {Arctostaphylos — Uva-Ursi = bearberry). Trailing its 

 spreading branches over sandy ground, rocky hillsides and steeps 



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