D 



ecember, 



1920] 



The Canadian Field-Naturalist 



17! 



W. Child, entitled "Some Traits of Epipactis in 

 Vermont," in which the author draws attention to 

 the fact, that in Vermont when examined in living 

 specimens, the sepals both lateral and dorsal of . 

 pubescens as it comes into flower, are definitely 

 tinged in the centre with a green colour, those of E. 

 tesselata with a rose colour, whilst those of E. repens 

 var. ophioides are pure white. As regards the two 

 last named I can fully bear out Mr. Child's findings 

 in Vermont, for the same thing occurs here at Hat- 

 ley, and in the case of tesselata, so much so, that 

 many of the racemes might be described as rose 

 pink. Those of repens var. ophiodes on the other 

 hand I have never found to be anything but pure 

 white. Of the Coral Roots the Early one, Coral- 

 lorrhiza trifida, was everywhere, but the Large one, 

 C. maculata, is far more restricted. The only sta- 

 tion I discovered for it last year produced very few 

 examples this season owing to the ground being 

 covered with spruce trees which had been cut down 

 for pulpwood, and although another station was 

 found near my house, it contained only two plants, 

 and none could be found on the ground at the 

 roadside to the northeast of the village shown to me 

 late in August of last year. Although the Green 

 Adder's Mouth, Microst^Us unifolia, has been des- 

 cribed to me as a weed in New Brunswick, I can 

 hardly say the same of it at Hatley, nevertheless 

 my experience this year warrants the statement that 

 it is a very generally distributed plant growing al- 

 most everywhere, but usually only in comparatively 

 small numbers. Its cousin the White Adder's 

 Mouth, M. monophyllos, still holds its own as a 

 rarity, for although two more stations have been 

 located, making a total in all of four, three of them 

 can only boast of holding some two or three plants 

 each, whilst on the remaining or fourth one, it 

 would probably be hard to find more than a dozen 

 or so. Loesel's Twayblade, Liparis Loeselii, I find 

 is quite generally distributed, especially wherever 

 wet places occur on the sides, or at the foot of hills, 

 and here several new stations for it have been found. 

 And now I must say a few words regarding the 

 great Brule Bog, near Waterville, of which mention 

 was made in my last paper, and to which a trip in 

 company with my friend, Mr. Ludlow Griscom was 

 contemplated this season. This trip eventually came 

 off on June 23, with results anything but what we 

 had expected. No new orchids were discovered, 

 and had it not been for some interesting species of 

 Carex, the trip might almost be said to have been a 

 blank. The cause of this disappointment seems en- 

 tirely due to a fact we had overlooked in the fall of 

 last year, i.e. the digging of some deep drains, which 

 are no doubt sapping the life out of this bog, in fact 

 it can no longer be considered a bog in the true 

 sense, for on the day we visited it, the fact of gett- 



ing one's boots thoroughly wet seemed somewhat re- 

 mote. All one did was to walk on a springy bed 

 of dry sphagnum and low shrubs, which was tiring 

 in the extreme. In the woods surrounding the bog, 

 however, damper conditions prevailed, and here 

 the following orchids were found during our two 

 visits, viz.: C'^pripedium acaule, Habenaria hyper- 

 borea, H. obtusata, Spiranthes Romanzoffiana, 

 Epipactis repens var. ophiodes, Listera cordata and 

 Corrallorrhiza trifida. 



Fortunately for our dejected spirits, I had heard 

 of another famous bog and swamp situated near 

 Beebe, a village some fifteen miles to the southwest 

 of Hatley as the crow flies, and thither we resolved 

 to go on the following day, as I already possessed 

 a pressed specimen of the Rose Pogonia, Pogonia 

 ophioglossoides, which had come from there, and 

 this alone was an inducement to me to visit the 

 place, as the species was new to my list. Rising 

 early the next morning (June 24), we made a start 

 by car in anything but propitious weather. How- 

 ever, this gradually improved, and shortly after 

 passing Burroughs Falls, we were cheered by the 

 sight of a Bartramian Sandpiper, Bartramia longi- 

 cauda, standing prominently on a large stone in the 

 centre of a field adjoining the road. This bird I 

 had not seen for seven years and I remarked to my 

 friend that it must be a good omen, and so it proved 

 to be as will be seen hereafter. Fortunately I was 

 acquainted with the owner of the land on which 

 the swamp was situated, and after calling on him 

 and obtaining all particulars as to its exact location, 

 we were able to enter it at the most convenient place, 

 and without loss of time. Almost at once it be- 

 came evident that this time we had indeed struck a 

 veritable El Dorado, and neither of us I think are 

 likely to soon forget that pleasant damp swamp, 

 with the treacherous little bog at the end of it. The 

 ground was covered with a growth of cedar, spruce 

 and tamarack, with nice open spaces scattered about 

 and everywhere was the wet cool sphagnum moss, 

 amongst which no less than ten different orchids 

 were found at this date, and later in July another 

 was added to the list. Now as already stated the 

 primary object of the visit was to take Pogonia 

 ophioglossoides but this could nowhere be found, 

 and I came to the conclusion that we were too early 

 for it which seemed to be borne out when later in 

 the day two solitary plants of Calopogon pulchellus 

 were found in bud only, this species usually ap- 

 pearing about the same time and in the company of 

 Pogonia. Now late in the afternoon we had wan- 

 dered down to the small bog at the southwest end 

 of the swamp, and it was whilst returning from 

 there that we decided to work another piece of 

 ground hitherto unexplored before finally leaving for 

 nome. Hardly had we commenced a systematic 



