WHITE-VEINED SHINLEAF.
Pyrola picta, Smith. Heath Family.
Leaves.—Leathery; dark green, veined with white; one or two inches long. Scape.—Four to nine inches high. Calyx.—Five-parted. Petals.—Six lines or so long; white. Stamens.—Ten. Anthers opening terminally. Ovary.—Five-celled. Style long; curved. Hab.—The Middle Sierras and Mendocino County, and northward.
The great coniferous forests of our higher mountains afford homes for many interesting members of the Heath family. A trip to the Sierras in August will yield many a prize to the flower-lover. Pyrolas, with waxen clusters, vie with Pipsissiwas; the weird looking Pterospora rears its uncanny, gummy stems, clothed with small, yellowish bells, while an occasional glimpse of a blood-red spike betrays the most wonderful of them all—the snow-plant.
Of the Pyrolas we made the acquaintance of three in this region. These pretty plants are called "shinleaf," because the leaves of some of the species were used by the English peasantry as plasters which they applied to bruises or sores. Pyrola picta, with its rich leathery, white-veined leaves and clusters of whitish, waxen flowers, was quite plentiful and always a delight to meet. Pyrola dentata, Smith, we often found growing with it. This has spatulate, wavy-margined leaves; which are pale and not veined with white, and its scapes are more slender. It never was so attractive or vigorous a plant as the other.
A ramble in the woods one day brought us to the brink of a charming stream, whose pure, ice-cold waters babbled along most invitingly. Following its course, we found ourselves in a delightfully cool, moist thicket, where, nestling in the deep shade, we found the beautiful, rich, glossy leaves of Pyrola rotundifolia, var. bracteata, Gray. The leaves are roundish, of a beautiful, bright chrome green, highly polished, and the delicate flowers are rose-pink. This is called "Indian lettuce" and "canker lettuce," and a tincture of the fresh plant is used in medicine for the same purposes as chimaphila. P. aphylla, Smith, is easily distinguished by the absence of leaves. It has flesh-colored stems, and its flowers are sometimes of the same color, and sometimes white. This is found in the Coast Ranges.
![[WHITE-VEINED SHINLEAF—Pyrola picta.]](#3624944100741987669_f033.png.id-4044576205129405453.wrap-0.html.html){kind=link}