165 PLANTS GROWING IN RICH OR ROCKY SOIL. 
marked with a dull, flesh colour. Scafe: upright, with one, or two scaly 
bracts. 
To name this sweetly pretty plant, shin-leaf, is very much 
like christening a little, dimpled baby, Nehemiah. It would 
seem as though both were slightly inappropriate. But accord- 
ing to the dear old doctrine of signatures, plants should be 
called for their visible uses ; and as the leaves of these plants 
were long ago used to assuage the hurt of bruises, they came 
to be associated with shin-plasters. Not that these plasters 
were held in reserve for the shins alone, but were applied 
quickly wherever the hurt might be. 
It is therefore owing to the efficacy of the leaves that the 
gentle blossoms have had attached to them so plebeian a name. 
P. rotundifolia, round-leaved wintergreen is a sister plant of 
the shin-leaf, and is almond scented. It has numerous bracts 
on the scape and its leaves are thick and shiny. It is found in 
rather more open woods. There is another variety which is 
rose-coloured and grows in bogs. 
P. sectinda, serrated wintergreen is noticeable on account of its 
small, green flowers, which turn to one side of the stem. It is 
less evergreen than the preceding species and has the thin, dull 
leaves of the shin-leaf. 
CREEPING WINTERGREEN. MOUNTAIN TEA. 
CHECKERBERRY. (Plate LXXXV/Z) 
Gaulthéria procumbens, 
FAMILY COLOUR ODOUR RANGE TIME OF BLOOM 
Heath. White. Scentless. Eastern United States. July-September. 
Flowers: usually one or more; axillary; nodding. Calyx: of five sepals. 
Corolla: )ell-shaped, with five points. Stamens: ten. /ustil: one, to .the 
ovary of which the calyx adheres and grows fleshy into the fruit, which ap- 
pears like’a berry. It is very pretty, round and red. Leaves : alternate ; oval; 
evergreen; shiny. Stem: creeping on or under the ground and sending up 
erect branches. 
Down deep in every heart must be a remembrance of the 
days when it was a great event to go to the moist meadows for 
the first bunch of violets, and later into the woods for a hand- 
ful of wintergreen. The delicate bloom and bright berries 


