One-flowered Pyrola.Moneses grandiflora.
Found usually in pine woods, by shaded brooks, in June.
The small, round, and pale stalk runs along the earth just under its surface, and terminates in a rosette of a few leaves, loosely lying upon the ground, and a flower stem from 2 to 4 inches high.
The round leaf is very smooth underneath, while the ribs and veins we prominent above; the margin is finely notched, and the texture is thin. In color a rich, cool green.
The 5-pointed petals of the flower are a shallow shell-shape; their margins curl under somewhat, their texture is thin and waxen, and their surface is smooth to the touch; color, white, inclined to ivory. The 10 white stamens have curious 2-horned, dull-yellow tips,—they lie back, with a quick curve, in the hollows of the petals; the bright green pistil bends, or curves downward; the flat 5-parted calyx is very small. The single flower is set on the crook-like tip of the pale-green flower-stem, which bears one or two tiny pale bracts.
This boldly curved crook of the flower-stem is completely straightened when the petals fall,—the seed-box is held upright. Like most of its tribe this is a gregarious little plant, and grows in plantations.