CiiioGENEs. ERICACE^. 451 



it in the valley of the river below Hudson. Fl. May - June. Fr. August. The whole 

 plant has an aromatic taste not unlike that of Gautiera procumhens, or the bark of Betula 

 lenta. The fruit often seems to ripen its seeds without becoming succulent, or acquiring the 

 full size, in which case the upper part of the ovary remains free. In habit this genus agrees 

 with Pernettyia, but differs in its tetramerous flowers, and in having the caly.x; (at least in 

 fruit) adherent. It is distinguished from Vaccinium (the sect. Vitis Idcea of which it pretty 

 nearly approaches, particularly V. myrtifolium) chiefly b}' the 8-toothed disk, the want of 

 tubular appendages to the anthers, and the habit. I have never seen the flowers of the form 

 represented by Pursh in the plate quoted above. 



Suborder III. PYROLACEiE. Lindl. The Wintergreen Tribe. 



Petals distinct, or only slightly united at the base. Ovary free from the calyx, 

 3 - 5-celled. Fruit a capsule, opening by chinks at the sutures ; but the 

 valves not separating from the axis. Seeds very numerous, minute ; the testa 

 very loose and cellular, not conformed to the nucleus. — Low herbaceous or 

 suffrutescent mostly perennial plants. 



12. PYROLA. Linn. {excl. sp.); E?iJl. gen. i3'i9. wintergrees. 



[ Named from tlie Latin, pyrus, a pear; because the leaves somewhat resemble those of the Pear-tree. 2 



Calyx 5-cleft or 5-parted. Petals 5. Stamens 10, erect or ascending : anthers with two 

 pores at the base, inverted after flowering (when the pores appear to be terminal). Ovary 

 globose, 5-cjlled. Style filiform, erect or declined : stigma with five tubercles or five rays. 

 Capsule 5-celled. — Perennial herbaceous plants, with creeping rhizomas. Leaves mostly 

 radical, petiolate, ovate or orbicular. Peduncles scape-like. Flowers in a simple raceme, 

 rarely solitary, white or rose-colored, usually fragrant : pedicels nodding. 



The anthers are, strictly speaking, inverted before flowering, and become erect after the corolla cipands ; the true 

 apex being the perforated extremity. 



^ 1. Pyrola proper. Peduncles racemose : sulures of the capsule woolly. 

 * Stamens ascending : style declined ; sligma annulate. 



1. Pyrola rotundifolia, Linn. Round-leaved Wintergreen. 



Leaves nearly orbicular, coriaceous, shining, obscurely crenate-serrate, mostly shorter than 

 the petiole, conspicuously reticulate ; scape many-flowered, bracteate ; calyx nearly one- 



57* 



