1911] The Ottawa Naturalist. 119 



one never knows what good fortune may be waiting just around 

 the corner, even in a locality one knows well. Thus, last 

 summer, while walking along a woodland path which I had 

 followed hundreds of times before, I was delighted to find a 

 vigorous plant of the rather rare Corallorrhiza striata growing 

 so close to the beaten track that I marvel how it escaped injury 

 from passersby. Another such instance is that of a specimen 

 of the somewhat scarce Microsiylis unijolia which suddenly 

 appeared this summer in the moss at the side of a road I have 

 travelled for years. I had never before seen this species within 

 four or five miles of the place. The little plant would cer- 

 tainly not have survived the summer in this spot, for the moss 

 it grew in had begun to dry up, and its single leaf was drooping 

 pathetically when I found it. I cut away a large piece of the 

 surrounding moss and transplanted plant and all in a cool, damp 

 swamp. When I revisited it some days later, its leaf had stiff- 

 ened up again and two of its ovaries had begun to swell. Addi- 

 tional instances of fortunate finds of the kind might be cited, 

 such as Liparis Loeselii appearing unexpectedly in a haunt of 

 Habenaria hyperborea which I had visited scores of times before, 

 but there is the other side, already mentioned, to this singular 

 orchidaceous habit. If they sometimes delight the botanist 

 by their unhoped-for apparition, they can also disappoint him 

 sadly on occasion. In the summer of 1906, I photographed 

 Habenaria orbicxdata which that year was very plentiful- for an 

 orchid. The negatives were not entirely satisfactory, and I 

 determined to photograph the plant again next season. But 

 alas, I have never since come across a good specimen in blossom 

 in this vicinity. A few pairs of the flat shining leaves can be 

 found, but they put forth no flowers. The handsome Haben- 

 aria psycodes, too, has disappeared entirely from a swamp 

 where it grew two years ago. In a beaver meadow which always 

 heretofore contained a large number of Spiranthes cernua, this 

 year I can find only two or three; and I have sought diligently 

 but in vain for two plants of Microsiylis monophyllos which grew 

 last year in a cedar swamp near Marshalls Bay. Neither the 

 original plants, which showed healthy signs of setting seed 

 when I last saw them , nor any of their progeny can now be found. 

 Some species, however, are quite constant in their habitat. 

 I know a flourishing Habenaria bracteata which has flowered 

 every year for six years now. This year, though, its insect 

 guests seem to have all sent in their regrets, for not one of its 

 flowers has set seed. The Cypripediums, too, can generally 

 be found in the same place year after year. This is true more 

 particularly of C. parviflorum and C. hirsutum (speciabile), 

 which, growing as they do in mosquito-infested swamps, are 



