December, 1920] 



The Canadian Field-Naturalist 



169 



FURTHER NOTES ON THE ORCHIDS OF HATLEY, STANSTEAD 



COUNTY, QUEBEC, 1920. 

 By H. Mousley. 



Writing to me last year a correspondent spoke of 

 having had an "orgy" of orchids, and I thmk the 

 same remark might apply equally well to my experi- 

 ence here at Hatley during the present season, as 

 not content with observing some thirty species or 

 rather more in their native haunts, I have grown 

 most of them successfully indoors, thereby enabling 

 me to more thoroughly examine their wonderful con- 

 trivancies for the perpetuation of their species by 

 means of cross fertilization. In passing it may be 

 remembered that it took the scientific world just over 

 one hundred and seventy-five years before this in- 

 teresting problem of cross fertilization was fully 

 understood or known. It was Nehemias Grew who 

 first announced to the world in 1682 that it was 

 necessary for the pollen of a flower to reach the 

 stigma in order to insure the fruit. After this an- 

 nouncement came a period of over fifty years of 

 discussion and scepticism amongst the leading lights 

 of the botanical world, until Linnaeus in 1735 re- 

 affirmed the fact and proved beyond further doubt 

 that Grew was right. But this was only part of 

 the secret, and it took another fifty years or more, 

 or until 1787, before Christian Conrad Sprengel a 

 German botanist and school-master essayed to ex- 

 plain how certain plants whose particular construc- 

 tion prevented their pollen from reaching the stigma 

 in the usual way were fertilized. He announced the 

 startling fact that they were fertilized by means of 

 insects, but here again like his predecessors he had 

 seen but half the secret, and it remained for Charles 

 Darwin in 1857-58 to read the riddle aright. 



Sprengel started out to prove that insects fertil- 

 ized a flower by brushing the pollen from the anthers 

 by various hairy parts of their bodies, and in their 

 motions conveyed it to the stigma. Difficulties, how- 

 ever, soon confronted him, in the shape of certain 

 plants whose pollen and stigma matured at different 

 periods, and therefore could not be fertilized in the 

 manner he had declared, and thus unknowingly, 

 within an ace of the goal, his theory broke down, 

 and it took a further period of seventy years of 

 controversy and investigation, before Darwin was 

 able to show, that cross fertilization by insects, and 

 not insect fertilization alone, was the fundamental 

 plan involved in floral construction. 



To return, however, it will no doubt be remem- 

 bered that it has always been my ambition to place 

 Hatley in the very first rank as an ornithological, 

 entomological and botanical El Dorado, and I now 

 think in so far as regards the latter, there is no place 



in Eastern North America, with the exception of 

 one, that can show such a list of the family Orchi- 

 daceae as Hatley. In my last paper on the subject 

 "The Canadian Field-Naturalist," Vol. X.XXIV, 

 1920, No. 3, pp. 44-47, I pointed out that so far 

 as I was aware my only rival was Fairlee in the 

 State of Vermont, with a list of thirty-three species 

 and varieties, against mine of thirty, thus leaving 

 me three behind, which I was determined to try and 

 make up this year by covering further nevv ground. 

 In this I have been successful, Hatley thus tieing with 

 Fairlee for first honours, i.e. unless Dr. Denslow 

 has discovered any fresh species also. My addi- 

 tions are the Small Round-leaved Orchis, Orchis 

 rotundifoUa, Hooker's Orchid, Hahenaria Hookeri, 

 and the Rose Pogonia, Pogonia ophioglossoidcs, 

 the adding of the first and last named, however, 

 necessitating my going outside the four square miles 

 radius, both of them having been found at a dis- 

 tance of fifteen miles from my house. As an offset 

 against this I have discovered many new stations 

 for most of the other species, all of which I think 

 with the possible exception of Cal}^pso bulbosa 

 could now be found within a radius of three square 

 miles. Even as recently as September 9 I found 

 two new stations for Hahenaria macrophylla within 

 fifteen minutes walk of my house. Three of the 

 plants had flowered and were in fruit, their res- 

 pective heights being 59, 52 and 50 cm., whilst 

 their withered spurs with bends even then measured 

 3.5 cm. in length and over, with leaves from 17.20 

 to 19.75 cm. in width. Thoreau in his "The 

 Maine Woods," p. 297, speaks of a large plant he 

 specially measured on July 27, 1857, as being 61 

 cm. in height, with leaves 24.25 cm. long and 22.80 

 cm. wide, which by its size was possibly referable 

 to this species and not orbiculaia. As already indi- 

 cated it has indeed been an exceptionally interesting 

 season, for not only have the three new species men- 

 tioned been added to the list given in my last paper, 

 but much further valuable information has been 

 gained with regard to the distribution of most of 

 the other species. The lovely little Calypso (of 

 which I was fortunate in finding one plant with 

 white petals and sepals, and another with cream 

 coloured ditto) as usual was the first to appear, 

 being in full bloom on May 25, followed quickly 

 by the Smaller Yellow Lady's Slipper, Cypripedium 

 parviflorum, on May 30, and the Showy Orchis, 

 Orchis spectahilis, on June 3. The last named has 

 never been an abundant species, and only two or 



