WILD FLOWERS OF NKW YORK 209 



Splitting at mattirity along the partitions into five valves which spread 

 backward into a five-parted rosette, exposing the fleshy interior. 



In woods, preferring sandy or rocky soil, often under or near evergreens, 

 Newfovmdland to Saskatchewan, south to Florida and Wisconsin. Flower- 

 ing in April and May. 



Among our wild flowers, the Traihng Arbutus, often called Mayflower, 

 is perhaps the greatest favorite and because of its prostrate habit and 

 short stems, impossible to pick without uprooting some of the plant. It 

 is also very sensitive to fire and sudden changes in the character of its 

 surroundings, such as lumbering and grazing, so that in many localities 

 where it was once common it is now rare or entirely exterminated. 



Creeping or Spicy Wintergreen; Checkerberry 



Gaidthcria prociiiiiheiis Linnaeus 



Plate 158b 



A low, aromatic, semiwoody plant with creeping or subterranean, 

 perennial stems, branches erect or nearly so, 2 to 6 inches high, bearing 

 several oval, oblong or obovate, blunt or pointed, thick, evergreen leaves, 

 dark green and shining above, pale beneath, i to 2 inches long, margins 

 slightly re volute and serrate with low bristle-tipped teeth. Flowers white 

 or slightly pink, usually solitary in the axils of the leaves, on recurved 

 stalks. Corolla urn-shaped, with five recurved teeth. Stamens ten, 

 included within the flower, the anther sacs opening by a terminal pore. 

 Fruit a nearly globular berry usually somewhat indented at the summit 

 and sHghtly five-lobed, bright red when mature, one-third to one-half of 

 an inch in diameter, mealy and very spicy in flavor, ripe in late autumn 

 and persisting on the branches well into the next season. 



In woods and open places, especially under or near evergreen trees, 

 and most abundant in sandy regions, Newfoundland to Manitoba, New 

 Jersey, Georgia, West Virginia, Indiana and Michigan. 



The generic name was given to this plant by Peter Kalm in honor of 

 Doctor Gaultier who lived at Quebec in the middle of the eighteenth century. 



