White and Greenish 



they straggle for a foothold on the stamens, and will be carried 

 by them to another flower's protruding stigma, which impedes 

 their entrance purposely to receive the imported pollen. 



By reason of the old custom of clapping on a so-called " shin- 

 plaster " to every bruise, regardless of its location on the human 

 body, a lovely little plant, whose leaves were once counted a first 

 aid to the injured, still suffers instead under an unlovely name. 

 The Shin-leaf (P. ellipticd) sends up a naked flower-stalk, scaly 

 at the base, often with a bract midway, and bearing at the top from 

 seven to fifteen very fragrant, nodding, waxen, greenish-white 

 blossoms, similar to the round-leaved wintergreen's. But on the 

 thinner, dull, dark-green, upright leaves, with slight wavy inden- 

 tations, scarcely to be called teeth, on the margins, their shorter 

 leaf-stalks often reddish, one chiefly depends to name this common 

 plant. It is usually found, in company with a few or many of its 

 fellows, in rich woodlands so far west as the Rocky Mountains, 

 blooming from June to August, according to the climate of its wide 

 range. 



When the little Serrated or One-sided Wintergreen (P. se- 

 cunda) first sends up its slender raceme in June or July, it is erect ; 

 but presently the small, greenish-white flowers, opening irreg- 

 ularly along one side, appear to weigh it downward into a curve. 

 Usually several bracted scapes rise from a running, branched root- 

 stock, to a height of from three to (rarely) ten inches above a clus- 

 ter of basal evergreen leaves. These latter are rather thin, oval, 

 slightly pointed, wavy or slightly saw-edged, the midrib prom- 

 inent above and below. A peculiarity of the flowers is, that their 

 petals are partially welded together into little bells, with the clap- 

 per (alias the straight green pistil) protruding, and the stamens 

 united around its base. After the blossoms have been fertilized, 

 the tiny, round, five-scalloped seed-capsules, with the pistil still 

 protruding, remain in evidence for months, as is usual in the py- 

 rola clan. Small as the plant is, it has managed to distribute it- 

 self over Europe, Asia, and the woods and thickets of our own 

 land from Labrador to Alaska, southward to California, Mexico, 

 and the District of Columbia. 



Another little globe-trotter, so insignificant in size that one is 

 apt to overlook it until its surprisingly large blossom appears in 

 June or July, is the One-flowered Wintergreen (Monesesumflora}, 

 found in cool northern woods, especially about the roots of pines, 

 in such yielding soil as will enable its long stem to run just below 

 the surface. One-flowered Pyrola, it is often called, although it 

 belongs to a genus all its own. A boldly curved stalk, like a 

 miniature Bo-peep crook, enables the solitary white or pink 



232 



