Stems slender, pubescent at least above, bearing numerous white, pink, yellow or red flowers in a nodding one-sided raceme which soon becomes erect. Roots a dense mass of fleshy fibres. Terminal flower usually 5-parted, the lateral ones 3-4-parted. Sepals commonly as many as the petals. Petals saccate at the base. Stamens 6-10; filaments subulate: filiform; anthers horizontal, the 2 sacs becoming confluent, opening by 2 unequal valves, the larger valve spreading or reflexed, the smaller erect. Disk confluent with the base of the ovary, 8-10-toothed. Ovary 3-5-celled; style slender; stigma funnelform, sometimes glandu-lar-ciliate. Capsule 3-5-celled, 3-5-valved, erect. [Greek, referring to its growth under firs.] A genus of about 6 species of the north temperate zone. Type species: Monotropa Hypopitys L.

1. Hypopitys Americàna (Dc.) Small. Pine-Sap. False Beech-Drops

Fig. 3211

Hypopitys multiflora americana DC. Prodr. 72: 780. 1839. Hypopitys americana Small, Fl. SE. U. S. 880. 1903.

Plants lemon-yellow, or sometimes pink, finely. pubescent. Stems 4'-12' tall; scales crowded at base of the stem, 2"-6" long, the upper ones sometimes irregularly toothed; flowers several; sepals spatulate to oblanceolate, 3 1/2"-5" long, often irregularly toothed, ciliate with very short hairs; petals mainly cuneate, 9"-13" long, sparingly pubescent, and ciliate like the sepals; style sparingly pubescent; stigma not retrorsely bearded; capsule oval or oblong-oval, 3V-5" long.

In woods, Ontario and New York, and southward in or near the Alleghenies to North Carolina. Yellow-bird's-nest. Fir-rope. July-Aug.

2. Hypopitys Lanuginosa (Michx.) Nutt. Hairy Pine-Sap

Fig. 3212

Monotropa lanuginosa Michx. Fl. Bor. Am. 2: 266. 1803. Hypopitys lanuginosa Nutt. Gen. 1: 271. 1818.

Plants tawny and crimson, or sometimes pale, markedly or copiously pubescent. Stems 2'-14' tall; scales 2 1/2"-3 1/2" long; flowers few; sepals cuneate, oblanceolate or narrowly elliptic-spatulate, 3"-4 1/2" long, acute or acuminate, ciliate with relatively long hairs; petals cuneate to almost oblong, 5" - 5 1/2" long, markedly pubescent without, ciliate like the sepals; style copiously pubescent; stigma retrorsely bearded; capsule globular, 2"-2 1/2" long.

In woods, Newfoundland and Quebec to Nova Scotia, Ontario and Indiana, and southward, especially in and near the mountains, to South Carolina and Tennessee, and to Florida. June-Aug. This species and the preceding one were included in H. Hypopitys, an Old World species, in our first edition.