Part 49

*Prince’s Pine.* Chimaphila umbellata. *Pipsissewa.*

Found in dry woods during July.

The simple leafy stalk varies from 4 to 10 inches in height, and is round, tough-fibred, and woody at the base. Color, green.

The oblong leaf is widest toward the tip, and tapering toward the base; the margin is notched, the texture is fine, firm, and thick, with a smooth and shining surface. The color is dark green, lighter beneath; it is evergreen. The leaves, on very short stems, grow in whorls of 5 (generally speaking), about the stalk.

The flower has 5 rounded, concave, white petals, with a rose colored ring marked in its center; the 10 pinkish stamens are set around the large, conical, green pistil, whose summit is flat and sticky; the small 5-parted calyx is green. Several flowers, on short curving stems, grow in a cluster, from the top of the flower-stem.

Pipsissewa’s seed-cases are interesting; they are round and brown, and, borne upright on the end of the slender stems, are truly decorative in aspect, and with the shining green leaves remain unchanged by winter’s cold. In Maine the plant is called “Love-in-winter.”

*Spotted Wintergreen.* Chimaphila maculata.

Found in dry woods, commonly under evergreen trees, in July.

The dull red, tough stem, 5 or 6 inches in height, bears one or two whorls of leaves.

The leaves, about 2 inches long, are tapering at the tip, with a few small notches on the margin; they are thick, and leathery, with a smooth surface, and are set in whorls of 4 or 5 on short foot-stems. In color, dark green, with the ribs marked out by broad lines of light.

In general form, the flower is much like that of the Pipsissewa. The petals are white, the stamens pale cream, and the pistil green.

This form of the Pipsissewa is less common in the New England than in the Middle States. Its variegated leaves are a pleasing, somewhat rare note in our winter leafage.

*Wintergreen.* Gaultheria procumbens.

Found during July in woods, and along the edges of woods.

The creeping stalk sends up an erect stem, leafy at the top, about 4 or 5 inches high, woody-fibred and tough, and smooth to the touch. Its color is green,--red toward the root.

The leaf is a broad oval, with a rounded tip, an obscurely notched margin, of a tough and thick fibre, and smooth, polished surface. It is evergreen: when old a dark green, often bronzy; more yellow-green, tinged with dull red, when young. The alternate leaves, on very short stems, are clustered at the top of the stalk.

The small bell-shaped flower is minutely 5-parted, and all white. The flowers, on short curving stems, grow singly from the angles of the leaves, hanging their bells downward.

The fruit is round and small, a bright cherry red in color; it ripens in the fall and remains throughout snow-time, always ready to lend its glowing color, with the bronzy leaves that surround it, to a winter bouquet from the woods. The new shoots put forth from the ground in June, and are called “youngsters” in the country; they have an aromatic, pungent flavor, and going “youngstering” is a favorite diversion of childhood. The plant is a great colonist, and year after year its plantations thrive in the same localities.

*False Beech Drops.* Monotropa Hypopitys. *Pine Sap.*

Found growing upon the roots of pine or oak trees, from June to September.

The single and erect stalk is about 6 or 8 inches high; thick, fleshy, and smooth, or downy. It is pale at the foot, deepening to a crimson-red near the flowers.

The small and sheath-like bracts are indeterminate in shape, thin and dry. In color yellow-red, turning blackish when withered. A few only occur upon the stalk.

The small flowers are irregularly vase-shaped, and composed of 8 or 10 narrow fleshy parts with crinkled tips; they are set on short stems, in the clasp of a bract, and arranged in terminal groups of 2 to 5 in number. The color is rosy-red, with yellow tips,--flowers, bracts, and the top of the stalk following the same scheme of color.

A parasite, growing upon the roots, and, though not unpleasing in general aspect when perfectly fresh, betraying the base quality of its nature when mature, for an unwholesome mould spreads over its parts as it grows old. When first opened the flowers turn down, but become erect with age.

*Indian Pipe.* Monotropa uniflora. *Corpse Plant.*

Found in dark, damp woods, from June to August.

The thick, round, flower-stem varies from 3 to 8 inches in height, and is fleshy, smooth, and clammy. Its color is white, or faintly flesh-tinted.

The small, scaly bracts, which serve for leaves, are white.