194 



NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



White Alder Family 



Clethraceae 

 Sweet Pepper Bush; White Alder 



Clethra alnifolia Linnaeus 



Plate 147b 



A much-branched shrub, 3 to 9 feet high with finely canescent twigs. 

 Leaves obovate, blunt or pointed at the apex, narrowed or tapering at 

 the base, sharply toothed, smooth or nearly so and green on both sides, 



1 to 3 inches long, on very short petioles. Flowers white, about one-third 

 of an inch broad, in elongated, slender racemes terminal on the branches, 

 spicy-fragrant; calyx five-cleft, the segments oblong, blunt, nerved; petals 

 five, very slightly united at the base, obovate; stamens ten; anthers sagittate, 

 inverted in anthesis, the pollen sacs opening by apical pores; ovary three- 

 celled, style longer than the stamens, with three stigmas. Fruit pods 

 almost globose, about one-eighth of an inch long. 



In marshy or swampy ground or low, sandy fields and wet woods 



near the coast from Maine to Florida and Mississippi. Flowering in 



July and August. 



Wintergreen Family 



Pyrolaceae 



Bog Wintergreen 



Pyrola uliginosa Torrey 



Plate 151a 



Leaves all basal, the blades orbicular or broadly oval, dull green, 

 thick in texture, somewhat evergreen, blunt or rounded at the apex, 1 to 



2 inches long, the margins very obscurely crenulate, petioles about as long 

 or longer than the blades. Flowers pink or purplish pink, one-half to two- 

 thirds of an inch broad; calyx lobes ovate-oblong, one-third as long as the 

 blunt petals; stamens ten, anthers opening by a basal but apparently apical 

 pore as the anther becomes reversed at flowering time, which is true of 

 all species of Pyrola. Fruit capsules about one-fifth of an inch in diameter. 



