Part 20

A woody vine climbing by means of disk-bearing tendrils, and also by rootlets. Leaves.—Usually divided into five leaflets. Flowers.—Greenish, small, clustered, appearing in July. Fruit.—A small, blackish berry in October.

Surely in autumn, if not always, this is the most beautiful of our native climbers. At that season its blood-like sprays are outlined against the dark evergreens about which they delight to twine, showing that marvellous discrimination in background which so constantly excites our admiration in nature. The Virginia creeper is extensively cultivated in Europe. Even in Venice, that sea-city where one so little anticipates any reminders of home woods and meadows, many a dim canal mirrors in October some crumbling wall or graceful trellis aglow with its vivid beauty.

SHIN-LEAF. Pyrola elliptica. Heath Family.

Scape.—Upright, scaly, terminating in a many-flowered raceme. Leaves.—From the root, thin and dull, somewhat oval. Flowers.—White, nodding. Calyx.—Five-parted. Corolla.—Of five rounded, concave petals. Stamens.—Ten. Pistil.—One, with a long curved style.

In the distance these pretty flowers suggest the lilies-of-the-valley. They are found in the woods of June and July, often in close company with the pipsissewa. The ugly common name of shin-leaf arose from an early custom of applying the leaves of this genus to bruises or sores; the English peasantry being in the habit of calling any kind of plaster a “shin-plaster” without regard to the part of the body to which it might be applied. The old herbalist, Salmon, says that the name Pyrola was given to the genus by the Romans on account of the fancied resemblance of its leaves and flowers to those of a pear-tree. The English also call the plant “wintergreen,” which name we usually reserve for Gaultheria procumbens.

P. rotundifolia is a species with thick, shining, rounded leaves.

COMMON BLACK HUCKLEBERRY. Gaylussacia resinosa. Heath Family.

One to three feet high. Stems.—Shrubby, branching. Leaves.—Oval or oblong, sprinkled more or less with waxy, resinous atoms. Flowers.—White, reddish, or purplish, bell-shaped, growing in short, one-sided clusters. Calyx.—With five short teeth. Corolla.—Bell-shaped, with a five-cleft border. Stamens.—Ten. Pistil.—One. Fruit.—A black, bloomless, edible berry.

The flowers of the common huckleberry appear in May or June; the berries in late summer. The shrub abounds in rocky woods and swamps.

COMMON BLUEBERRY. Vaccinium corymbosun. Heath Family.

Five to ten feet high.

The blueberry has a bloom which is lacking in the huckleberry. It is found in swamps or low thickets in late summer.

PLATE XVIII

SHIN-LEAF.—P. elliptica. ]

SQUAW HUCKLEBERRY. Vaccinium stamineum. Heath Family.

Two or three feet high. Stems.—Diffusely branched.

This large greenish or yellowish berry is hardly edible. The flowers appear in June, and are easily recognized by their protruding stamens. The leaves are pale green above and whitish underneath.

PIPSISSEWA. PRINCE’S PINE. Chimaphila umbellata. Heath Family.

Stem.—Four to ten inches high, leafy. Leaves.—Somewhat whorled or scattered, evergreen, lance-shaped, with sharply toothed edges. Flowers.—White or purplish, fragrant, in a loose terminal cluster. Calyx.—Five-lobed. Corolla.—With five rounded, widely spreading petals. Stamens.—Ten, with violet anthers. Pistil.—One, with a short top-shaped style and disk-like stigma.

When strolling through the woods in summer one is apt to chance upon great patches of these deliciously fragrant and pretty flowers. The little plant, with its shining evergreen foliage, flourishes abundantly among decaying leaves in sandy soil, and puts forth its dainty blossoms late in June. It is one of the latest of the fragile wood-flowers which are so charming in the earlier year, and which have already begun to surrender in favor of their hardier, more self-assertive brethren of the fields and roadsides. The common name, pipsissewa, is evidently of Indian origin, and perhaps refers to the strengthening properties which the red men ascribed to it.

SPOTTED PIPSISSEWA. Chimaphila maculata. Heath Family.

The spotted pipsissewa blossoms a little later than its twin-sister. Its slightly toothed leaves are conspicuously marked with white.

WHITE DAISY. WHITE-WEED. OX-EYED DAISY. Chrysanthemum Leucanthemum. Composite Family (p. 13).

PLATE XIX

PIPSISSEWA.—C. umbellata. ]

The common white daisy stars the June meadows with those gold-centred blossoms which delight the eyes of the beauty-lover while they make sore the heart of the farmer, for the “whiteweed,” as he calls it, is hurtful to pasture-land and difficult to eradicate.

The true daisy is the Bellis perennis of England,—the

Wee, modest crimson-tippit flower