Wild Flowers East of the Rockies 235 



SHIN-LEAF (Pyrola elliptica) is the most common 

 of the Pyrolas. During the greater part of the year 

 it is composed of a tuft of thin leaves, almost pros- 

 trate on the ground. The evergreen leaves are 

 bright green, obscurely toothed, broadly elliptical and" 

 narrowing into long stems that clasp at the base. 

 During May a long, smooth scape springs from the mid- 

 dle of the group of basal leaves to a height of 5 to 10 

 inches, bearing near its top a raceme of many buds; 

 during June and July, these buds expand into nodding 

 flowers; each has five waxy-white petals, a small, five- 

 parted, green calyx and a long curving pistil. 



The name Shin-leaf was applied because the leaves 

 were formerly used for, and supposed to cure, sores 

 or bruises. It is common throughout the United 

 States and southern Canada. 



ONE-FLOWERED PYROLA (Moneses uniflora) ex- 

 ternally closely resembles the preceding species; in 

 reality it is intermediate between the Pyrolas and 

 Chimaphila. The leaves, clustered at the apex of 

 creeping subterranean shoots, are thin, rounded, shal-. 

 low-toothed and on slender trough-shaped stems. The 

 flower scape is from 2 to 5 inches high, has a few 

 scale-like bracts, and at the summit bears, during 

 June or July, a single nodding flower, with five ivory- 

 white petals, ten white stamens with large, two-point- 

 ed anthers and a prominent, club-shaped, green pistil. 

 It ranges from Labrador to Alaska and south to Pa. 

 and Minn. 



INDIAN PIPE, CORPSE PLANT (Monotropa uni- 

 flora) is a very peculiar, ghostly appearing plant 

 found commonly in dimly-lighted, rich woods. It has 

 no green foliage, just white bract-like appendages on 

 its upright, white, cold, clammy stem. A single white 

 flower nods from the top. It is parasitic, drawing its 

 nourishment from living roots or decaying vegetable 

 matter. Common throughout our range, 



