NATIVE WILD FLOWERS 
INDIAN Pipe—Monotropa uniflora (L.). 
This singular plant has many names, such as Wood Snow- 
drop, Corpse-plant, and Indian Pipe. The plant is perfectly 
colorless from root to flower, of a pellucid texture and semi- 
transparent whiteness. There are no green leaves, but 
instead broad and pointed scales, clasping the rather thick 
stem, which is terminated by one snowy-white flower. The 
flower, when first appearing, is turned to one side and bent 
downwards, but becomes erect as it expands its silvery 
petals: these are five in number; stamens from eight to 
ten; stigma about five-rayed; seed vessel an ovoid pod 
with from eight to ten grooves; seed small and numerous. 
Though so purely white when growing, the whole plant 
turns perfectly black when dried; even a few minutes after 
they are gathered, as if shrinking from the pollution of the 
human hand, they rapidly lose their silvery whiteness and 
become unsightly. To see this curious flower in its perfec- 
tion you must seek it in its forest haunts, under the shade 
of beech and maple woods, where the soil is black and rich; 
there, among decaying vegetables, grows this flower of snowy 
whiteness. 
There are two species of the family. In a hemlock wood 
I found the equally singular 
Pine Sap—Monotropa Hypopitys (L.), 
a tawny-colored, scaled, leafless species, with several flowers, 
covered with soft pale yellowish-brown wool, fragrant, and 
full of honey, which fell from the flower cups in heavy 
luscious drops. This plant is of rather rare occurrence; 
it is found here only in pine or hemlock woods, though 
Gray speaks of it as common in oak and pine woods. 
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