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One-Flowered Pyrola

Moneses grandiflora. Heath Family.

Scape.--Two to four inches high. Leaves.--Rounded; thin; veiny; toothed; from the roots. Flower.--White or rose-colored; solitary; half an inch broad. Calyx.--Five-parted; Corolla.--Of five rounded widely spreading petals. Stamens.--Ten. Pistil.--One; protruding; with a large five-rayed stigma. This lovely little plant is found in flower in the deep pine woods of June or July. It has all the grace and delicacy of its kinsman, the shin-leaf and pipsissewa, but, if possible, is even more daintily captivating. The generic name is from two Greek words signifying single and delight, in reference to the "beauty which is a joy" of the solitary flower, and betraying the always pleasing fact that the scientist who christened it was fully alive to its peculiar charm.