166 PLANTS GROWING IN RICH OR ROCKY SOIL. 



marked with a dull, flesh colour. Scape : upright, with one, or two scaly 

 bracts. 



To name this sweetly pretty plant, shin-leaf, is very much 

 like christening a little, dimpled baby, Nehemiah. It would 

 seem as though both were slightly inappropriate. But accord- 

 ing to the dear old doctrine of signatures, plants should be 

 called for their visible uses ; and as the leaves of these plants 

 were long ago used to assuage the hurt of bruises, they came 

 to be associated with shin-plasters. Not that these plasters 

 were held in reserve for the shins alone, but were applied 

 quickly wherever the hurt might be. 



It is therefore owing to the efficacy of the leaves that the 

 gentle blossoms have had attached to them so plebeian a name. 



P. rotundifblia, round-leaved wintergreen is a sister plant of 

 the shin-leaf, and is almond scented. It has numerous bracts 

 on the scape and its leaves are thick and shiny. It is found in 

 rather more open woods. There is another variety which is 

 rose-coloured and grows in bogs. 



P. secunda, serrated wintergreen is noticeable on account of its 

 small, green flowers, which turn to one side of the stem. It is 

 less evergreen than the preceding species and has the thin, dull 

 leaves of the shin-leaf. 



CREEPING WINTERGREEN. MOUNTAIN TEA. 



CHECKERBERRY. (Plate LXXXVII^ 



Gaultheria proci'unbens. 



FAMILY COLOUR ODOUR RANGE TIME OF BLOOM 



Heatk. White. Scentless. Eastern United States. July-Septeiber. 



Flowers: usually one or more; axillary; nodding. Calyx: of five sepals. 

 Corolla: bell-shaped, with five points. Stamens: ten. Pistil: one, to the 

 ovary of which the calyx adheres and grows fleshy into the fruit, which ap- 

 pears like a berry. It is very pretty, round and red. Leaves : alternate ; oval ; 

 evergreen ; shiny. Stem : creeping on or under the ground and sending up 

 erect branches. 



Down deep in every heart must be a remembrance of the 

 days when it was a great event to go to the moist meadows for 

 the first bunch of violets, and later into the woods for a hand- 

 ful of wintergreen. The delicate bloom and bright berries 



