86 Rhodora [APRIL 
Those orchids which are slightly sweet, but scarcely enough so to 
be termed fragrant in the ordinary sense, include Cypripedium acaule 
and C. spectabile with possibly Orchis spectabilis. I would insert also 
Goodyera tesselata in which a sweet, pleasant scent is readily noted. 
Another mark of this species, that I have not seen elsewhere men- 
tioned, is a pinkish tinge almost invariably present in the flowers and 
sometimes of a very pronounced shade. 
Naturally the greatest number of species belong to the fragrant 
division and it is interesting to observe the disagreements in the 
attempts of different botanists to describe them. I have already men- 
tioned Cypripedium parvifiorum whose peculiar, almost sickishly sweet 
fragrance distinguishes it from C. pubescens. Of the Habenarias 
f/f, dilatata claims our admiration for an unusually strong and very | 
sweet, but characteristic fragrance, which would seem to indicate a 
wide difference between it and Æ. Avperberea which is scentless. 
Kraenzlin, however, in his recent great work on orchids (Orchida- 
cearum Genera et Species) restores it to its old place as a variety of 
JH. hyperborea. Baldwin complains because Gray referred to Æ. psy- 
chodes as “fragrant ” and contradicts him with the statement that all 
the specimens which he had found had a rank smell. Kraenzlin de- 
scribes them as “ swaveolentes” and “ wohlriechend.” The truth of 
the matter I find from my own experience and from experiments with 
others is this: the odor, which resembles no other with which I am 
acquainted, at first always impresses one as rank, nauseating, disa- - 
greeable ; to one persisting, however, it becomes very attractive, and 
the remembrance of it remains with one a long time. Spiranthes 
Aomansoffiana and S. cernua resemble each other in a very pronounced 
fragrance, though I have found apparent variations of the latter 
(RHODORA, I, 110) which were characterized along with other differ- 
ences by an entire lack of fragrance. Arethusa and its relatives all 
exhale a very delicate violet fragrance. Baldwin takes exception to 
the statements of Chapman, Goodale and Burroughs that the Arethusa 
is fragrant, as also to those of the last-mentioned writer and Meehan 
concerning the fragrance of Ca/opogom pulchellus, though admitting 
that quality in Pogonia ophioglossoides. Thoreau on the other hand 
refers with the greatest disgust to the disagreeably ‘‘ snaky " odor of 
the Pogonia. | 
I have found the following to be true of both the Pogonia and the 
Calopogon, and suppose that the case is the same with the Arethusa, 
