II4 Rhodora [JUNE 
THE ORCHIDACEAE OF A SERIES OF SWAMPS IN 
SOUTHERN VERMONT. 
x LERoy ANDREWS. 
A DEEP cut in the Green Mountain range of southwestern Vermont 
furnishes an interesting study for the botanist. The floor of this little 
valley, which extends over a length of some six or eight miles from the 
vicinity of Pownal, is comparatively uniform in level and the drainage 
system is therefore sluggish and broken up for the most part into a 
series of ponds, swamps and bogs, presenting very diversified condi- 
tions of plant-growth. Springs of clear, cold water from the sides of 
the steeply overhanging mountains help to furnish the conditions so 
favorable to many members of the fastidious family of the Orchidaceae. 
A few facts gathered from a careful exploration of this region may be 
of interest to the student of the environment and distribution of our 
Orchids. 
The representative species appearing uniformly throughout all the 
swamps is Cypripedium spectabile. Specimens of the pure white form 
of this species are frequently seen. A swamp of deep black mud, 
overgrown with trees of ordinary deciduous species, and traversed by 
cold streams furnishes also C. pubescens and gigantic specimens of 
Habenaria hyperborea. The occurrence of Microstylis monophyllos 
in this swamp is interesting as one of the more southerly stations of 
this plant in New England and from the fact that it has not been 
hitherto reported from this vicinity. 
A wet meadow near by, also traversed by cold brooks, is in proper 
season empurpled and richly perfumed by abundant spikes of //ade- 
naria psycodes interspersed with vigorous specimens of ZZ. /acera. 
Here also occurs, as might be expected, what is very apparently a 
natural hybrid between these two species, of which I may speak more 
at length at some subsequent time. This same meadow furnishes a ` 
single dense clump of ZZ. virescens. 
A series of peat-bogs farther on, however, present the most in- 
teresting conditions and reward the botanist most richly. These bogs 
are mostly bare of trees, some of the firmer portions, however, being 
covered by a sparse growth of young tamaracks. Here in May or early 
June may be found quantities of Arethusa bulbosa, while later appear 
Calopogon pulchellus and Pogonia ophioglossoides in the greatest pro- 
fusion, in charming contrast with the pure white, richly fragrant spikes 
