MITCHELL A PARTRIDGE-BEERY. 169 



in the throat of the corolla. Style filiform ; stigmas 4. Fruit baccate, 

 bright red, composed of the united ovaries of both flowers, each of which 

 contains 4 small horny, 1-seeded nutlets. It is edible but insipid. 



A small creeping, evergreen herb. Stems slender, t» to 12 inches long, 

 branching and rooting at the joints and becoming matted upon the sur- 

 face of the ground. Leaves one-half inch long, opposite, roundish, dark 

 green and shining, generally marked with a central longitudinal line of a 

 lighter color, of a coriaceous texture. Flowers of two kinds, one with 

 stamens exserted and style included, the other with style exserted and 

 stamens included ; these different kinds of flowers occur in different plants. 

 The flowers are white, about one-half inch long, and though generally with 

 their parts in fours, not unfrequently have them in fives, or even in sixes ; 

 they are produced in June. The whole plant turns black in drying. 



Habitat. — In moist woods, about the roots of trees, often forming a 

 vivid green matting, variegated in autumn by the bright red berries, the 

 latter often persisting till spring. Everywhere common. 



Part Used. — The herb — not official. 



Constituents. — Unknown. 



Preparations. — It is administered in infusion or decoction. 



Medical Properties and. Uses. — The medical properties of this plant are 

 altogether problematical. It is said to be astringent, diuretic, and partu- 

 rient. Squaws are said to use a decoction of it for some weeks previous 

 to their parturition, in order to render their delivery safe and easy ; white 

 women sometimes use slippery elm for the same purpose, and probably 

 with about the same amount of benefit. 



COMPOSITE. 



Character of the Order. — Flowers, relatively small, collected in a dense 

 head upon a common receptacle and surrounded by an involucre of bracts, 

 the whole resembling a single flower, and termed by the older botanists 

 compound. The separate flowers : calyx-tube coherent with the ovary, its 

 limb, termed pappus, composed of bristles, plumose hairs, scales, or even 

 minute leaflets, though sometimes absent entirely or reduced to a mere 

 margin. Corolla usually composed of 5 united petals, either ligulate or 

 tubular. Stamens 5, rarely fewer, their anthers linear and united into a 

 tube, sometimes with an appendage at the top or at the base. Ovary 1- 

 celled, 1-ovuled ; style in the fertile flowers 2-cleft, the lobes often fur- 

 nished with hairs for collecting pollen, the stigmatic surfaces in the form of 

 elevated lines along the inner margins. Fruit an achenium crowned with 

 the pappus. 



A very large order of herbs, rarely shrubs or trees, comprising about 

 one-tenth of the flowering plants of the w T orld. The flowers occur in many 

 different forms. When all of them are perfect the head is said to be 



