84 FAMILIAR FEATURES OF THE ROADSIDE. 



at a single flower nnder the magnifying glass. What 

 a revelation of dainty, frosty beauty it is ! There 

 are five petals which are cream-white 

 or pale flesh-colored ; these are well 

 turned back in the mature flower, 

 f^f**^) ^°*^ J^^^* inside of them we see a 

 |l/^^« ^) narrow circle of subdued magen- 

 J ta, over which are displayed in 



high relief ten handsome brown-pur- 

 ple anthers which are conspicuously 

 two-horned. In the center of all rises 

 Pipsissewa. a tiny, pink -yellow tinged dome. Not 

 only is the little flower beautiful, but 

 it is filled with a rare and delicate perfume. We 

 may look for it beneath the spruce and pine trees 

 on dry needle-covered ground. ISTot far from the 

 pipsissewa we may also see the shin leaf {Pyrola 

 elliptica>f, whose nodding flowers with prominent, 

 curved, taillike styles are also waxy, but green- 

 ish white. The dull - green, somewhat spoon- 

 shaped leaves rise in a circle from the base of the 

 plant. The flower stem is from six to nine inches 

 high. 



I have found the pipsissewa and the shin leaf 

 growing side by side in the woods about Saddle 

 Eiver Valley, N. J., and on the borders of the 

 woodland roads which skirt the mountains of New 



