ABSTRACT
Plukenet described and illustrated a small plant he called Pyrola affinis repens fruticosa (Prostrate woody shrub similar to Pyrola) in 1696. Linnaeus knew the plants from both Canada and Virginia, and realized they were unlike anything in Europe. He called them Epigaea because of their prostrate growth (Linnaeus [1753] 1957). This genus has a single species in eastern North America, a second one in the Caucasus and Asia Minor, and a third one in Japan (Mabberley 1997).
