Wintergreen Family

( Originally Published 1908 )

PYROLACEAE

UNTIL quite recently, and even yet in some books, this family is treated as a part of the great Heath family, but is sufficiently distinctive to stand by itself. Several members of the group are shrubs while the others are evergreen herbs. The petals of the corolla are not united to each other and the calyx is free from the ovary. There are many seeds in the fruit.

ONE-FLOWERED PYROLA. I like to call the One-flowered Pyrola by the name which was given it by Dr. Asa Gray, the greatest of American botanists. He named it Moneses, which means " single delight," showing his appreciation of the beauty of this little wood-land fairy that springs up singly or in groups in the cool pine woods of the northern states. The wax-like blossom shows its relationship to the other Pyrolas, from which, however, it is easily distinguished by the single flower on each stalk.

ELLIPTICAL-LEAVED PYROLA. The curious name of the Shin-leaf given the Elliptical-leaved Pyrola is due to an old custom by which its leaves were applied for healing bruises on the human body.

When in flower in midsummer it is a beautiful plant, being found in rich woods from the Rocky Mountains eastward.

ROUND-LEAVED PYROLA. The False Winter-green or Round-leaved Pyrola bears a general resemblance to the Shin-leaf. Its fragrant white flowers are borne in a spike on a stem varying greatly in height, though averaging perhaps twelve inches. The plants are found in open woods, over an area extending from Nova Scotia and Minnesota on the north to Georgia and Ohio on the south.

Oh! wherefore were the flowers made,
All dyed with rainbow light,
All fashioned with supremest grace,
Upspringing day and night;

Springing on valleys green and low,
And on the mountains high,
And in the silent wilderness
Where no man passes by?

God might have made the earth bring forth
Enough for great and small,
The oak tree and the cedar tree,
And not a flower at all.

Mary Howitt.