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Indian Pipe. Corpse-Plant. Ghost-Flower

Monotropa uniflora. Heath Family.

A low fleshy herb from there to eight inches high; without green foliage; of a wax-like appearance; with colorless bracts in the place of leaves. Flower.--White or pinkish; single; terminal; nodding. Calyx.--Of two to four bract-like scales. Corolla.--Of four or five wedge-shaped petals. Stamens.--Eight or ten; with yellow anthers. Pistil.--One, with a disk-like, four or five-rayed stigma. "In shining groups, each stem a pearly ray, Weird flecks of light within the shadowed wood, They dwell aloof, a spotless sisterhood. No Angelus, except the wild bird's lay, Awakes these forest nuns; yet, night and day, Their heads are bent, as if in prayerful mood. A touch will mar their snow, and tempests rude Defile; but in the mist fresh blossoms stray From spirit-gardens, just beyond our ken. Each year we seek their virgin haunts, to look Upon new loveliness, and watch again Their shy devotions near the singing brook; Then, mingling in the dizzy stir of men, Forget the vows made in that cloistered nook."(Mary Thacher Higginson.) The effect of a cluster of these nodding, wax-like flowers in the deep woods of summer is singularly fairy-like. They spring from a ball of matted rootlets, and are parasitic, drawing their nourishment from decaying vegetable matter. In fruit the plant erects itself and loses its striking resemblance to a pipe. Its clammy touch, and its disposition to decompose and turn black when handled, has earned it the name of corpse-plant. It was used by the Indians as an eye-lotion, and is still believed by some to possess healing properties.