120 Heath ( Rricacece). [No. 14. 



Fruit, red, globular, many-seeded, edible ; formed by the 

 thickening of the calyx around the enclosed seed-case. 

 A berry. 



Found, oftenest in cool, evergreen woods, from Georgia 

 far northward and sometimes southward to Florida. 



A woody evergreen, the stem creeping extensively oft- 

 enest a little below the surface of the ground. From the 

 stem spring erect, flowering branches, three to five inches 

 in height. The edible fruit and the young leaves are very 

 spicy, aromatic, and slightly astringent. They are some- 

 times used to flavor tea, or even as a substitute for tea. 



The names that are most common in New England are 

 Wintergreen and Checkerberry ; sometimes also it is called 

 Partridge-Berry. Locally, the children give the tender 

 brownish leaves other names — "Jinks," ''Pippins," 

 " Drunkards." In New Brunswick and in parts of Maine 

 the name is " Ivory." Among the hills of Southern Ohio, 

 it is "Mountain-Tea." Tea-Berry is a common name 

 westward. 



By what alchemy can the little Checkerberry-vine and 

 a tree — the unrelated Black Birch — both elaborate from 

 the elements around them the same most pleasant scent 

 and flavor. One other vine, still more modest, and of less 

 wide distribution, and with fruit as white as the Checker- 

 berry is red — the pretty creeping Snowberry of the North * 

 — shares with them the wonderful secret. 



The Wintergreen seems rather to ignore the seasons in 

 its blossoming and its ripening of fruit. Its small red 



* Described on page no. 



