es in height; the leaves are a
bright shining green, of a long narrow oval, delicately notched like the
edges of a rose-leaf; and the plant emerges from beneath the snow in the
early part of the year, as soon as the first thaw takes place, as fresh
and verdant as before they were covered up: it seems to be a shy
blossomer. I have never seen specimens of the flowers in bloom but
twice; these I carefully preserved for you, but the dried plant will
afford but an imperfect idea of the original. You always called, you
know, your dried specimens corpses of plants, and said, that when well
painted, their representations were far more like themselves. The
flower-stalk rises two or three inches from the centre of the plant, and
is crowned with round crimson buds and blossoms, consisting of five
petals, deepening from the palest pink to the brightest blush colour;
the stigma is of an emerald greenness, forming a slightly ribbed turban
in the centre, around which are disposed ten stamens of an amethyst
colour: in short, this is one of the gems of the floral world, and might
aptly be compared to an emerald ring, set round with amethysts. The
contrast of colours in this flower is exceedingly pleasing, and the
crimson buds and shining ever-green leaves are scarcely less to be
admired than the flower; itself it would be considered a great
acquisition to your collection of American shrubs, but I doubt if it
would flourish when removed from the shade of the pine-woods. This plant
appears to be the _Chimaphila corymbosa_, or winter-green, described by
Pursh, with some trifling variation in the colour of the petals.

Another of our winter-greens grows in abundance on the Rice-Lake plains;
the plant does not exceed four inches; the flowers are in little loose
bunches, pale greenish white, in shape like the blossom of the arbutus;
the berries are bright scarlet, and are known by the name of winter-
berry, and partridge-berry; this must be _Gualtheria procumbens_. But a
more beautiful little evergreen of the same species is to be found in
our cedar swamps, under the name of pigeon-berry; it resembles the
arbutus in leaf and flower more closely than the former plant; the
scarlet berry is inserted in a scarlet cup or receptacle, divided at the
edge in five points; it is fleshy, seeming to partake of the same nature
as the fruit. The blossoms of this elegant little shrub, like the
arbutus, of which it looks like the miniature, appear in drooping