THE WINTERGREENS 261 



and is specially adapted to fertilisation by insects 

 with long tongues, such as hawk-moths. The strong, 

 sweet scent is emitted chieily in the evening. 



The Wintergreens. 



All the five British species of the genus Pyrola 

 (natural order Pyrolacea}, the Wintergreen family, 

 by some botanists included in the Ericaceae, to which 

 they are closely related) occur in Switzerland, and 

 most of them may be met with in the Alpine forests. 

 A non-British species {Pyrola dilornntha, Sw.) is also 

 found in Switzerland, but it is a rare plant. 



The Wintergreens are herbaceous perennials with, 

 as the name implies, evergreen leaves. The leaves 

 are stalked, and spring from the creeping stem, close 

 to the surface of the ground. From among them 

 erect flowering shoots arise, bearing either a single 

 flower or a number of flowers arranged in a raceme. 

 The petals are quite free from one another, and fall 

 off* one by one, when the flower begins to fade. The 

 anthers open by pores at the tips. 



The Single-flowered Wintergreen {Pyrola unltfora, 

 Linn. ( = Moneses grandijlora, Gray) has a single 

 solitary pendulous flower, much larger than those of 

 the other species. The flowers, though conspicuous, 

 are quite honey less. In the other species the 

 inflorescence is a raceme and the flowers are smaller. 

 The Larger Wintergreen {Pyrola rotinid'i/olia, Linn.) 

 diff'ers from the Common Wintergreen {P. mhwr, 

 Linn.) and the Intermediate Wintergreen {P. media, 



