December, 1922. The Canadian Field-Naturalist 173 



FURTHER NOTES ON THE ORCHIDS OF HATLEY, STANSTEAD COUNTY, 



QUEBEC, 1921-1922 



By Henry Mousley 



IN MY last paper on the Orchids of this district, 

 "The Canadian Field-Naturalist," Vol. XXXIV, 

 1920, No. 9, pp. 169-173, I pointed out that so 

 far as I knew, Hatley tied with Fairlee in Vermont 

 for first honours, as regards the greatest number of 

 species to be found in a given area, which at that 

 date stood at thirty-three for both places. Since 

 then my most optimistic hopes have been more 

 than realized for out of the eight remaining 

 possibilities, as mentioned on page 172, no less 

 than three have been found during the present 

 season, 1922. These consist of the Small Wood 

 Orchis, {Habenaria clavellata), the Ragged Fringed 

 Orchis {Habenaria lacera), and Menzies' or the 

 Northern Rattlssnake Plantain {Epipactis deci- 

 piens), all of which will be dealt with hereafter in 

 an annotated list as before. The findng of these 

 three new species now places Hatley at the very 

 top of the list, in fact, it is doubtful if any other 

 place in Eastern North America can produce such 

 a record as thirty-six species for so small an area. 

 Very little work was done with the orchids during 

 the season of 1921; indeed, I was absent from 

 Hatley for part of July and the whole of August, 

 and never once visited the famous swamp near 

 Beebe, nor had I an opportunity of verifying the 

 four supposed plants of Epipac is decipiens found 

 on September 3, 1920, and recorded in "The Cana- 

 dian Field-Naturalist," Vol. XXXIV, 1920, No. 9, 

 p. 170. The only event of any real interest was 

 the finding, on June 30, of several nice plants of 

 Habenaria orbiculata and H. macrophylla in full 

 bloom. It was not until the following spring 

 (1922), that I decided to give the orchids especial 

 attention again as in 1920, in an endeavour to 

 break all existing records, and at the same time to 

 satisfy myself of the further possibilities, or other- 

 wise, of the great swamp near Beebe, With this 

 object in view, I repaired there on May 24, hoping 

 to find Calypso, which was already in bloom at 

 Hatley. In this I was disappointed, for no trace 

 of the lovely little orchid could be found, at least, 

 not in that part of the swamp I was able to work. 

 My next visit there was on July 1, principally with 

 the object of seeing Orchis rotundifolia once more. 

 On arrival I made immediately for the spot where 

 Mr. Ludlow Griscom and I found it in 1920. Four 

 plants only were in bloom, and it was whilst locat- 

 ing these, that I was also fortunate in discovering 

 four plants of Habenaria clavellata, as these were 

 in bud only. Later on I found a plant of Micro- 



stylis unifolia, both these latter being new to the 

 swamp list which already stood at eleven spec'es 

 as previously recorded in 1920. Arethusa was 

 decidedly on the wane, but Calopogon and Pogonia 

 were in fine condition, and more generally dis- 

 tributed than I had previously been able to ascer- 

 tain. One interesting plant of Calopogon had the 

 tips of the three blooms snow white, whilst the 

 petals and sepals were of a much paler shade of 

 magenta-crimson than usual. I allowed a month 

 to elapse before paying my next visit on July 29th, 

 when I found Habenaria clavellata fully out, and 

 one fine plant of Habenaria lacera partly in fruit. 

 The Northern White Orchis (Habenaria dilatata) 

 was in great profusion, but the var. media could 

 not be found, although many times I thought I 

 had it, when coming on fresh examples of H. 

 hyperborea which were growing with dilatata. 

 Fine specimens of the Hooded Ladies' Tresses 

 (Spiranthes Romanzoffiana) were also met with. 

 This orchid has an interesting history behind it, 

 having been discovered in Ireland on August 3, 

 1809 or 1810, by Mr. J. Drummond, this being 

 the only European station known for the species. 

 How it got there, did it ever occupy other Euro- 

 pean territory, or was it a migrant from America 

 or vice versa, or was it common to both Con- 

 tinents are interestng problems At all events 

 it is probably extinct in Ireland by now, as in 

 1886 two of the very few stations where it used to 

 be found were ploughed up, and the one planted 

 with potatoes, and the other with oats. Thus 

 perish some of our treasures, not always by the 

 hand of the unscrupulous collector! This species, 

 with the other two named, was new to the swamp 

 list, and brought the total up to sixteen species. 

 It hardly seemed likely that anything further 

 could be added, but I paid the place another visit 

 on August 12th, when Epipactis repens var. 

 ophioides and Corallorhiza maculata (in fruit) were 

 met with, thus bringing the list of orchids found 

 in this swamp up to a tbtal of eighteen species. 

 Never having made a list of those to be found in 

 the large swamp to the iiortheast of Hatley village 

 already referred to, "Ottawa Naturalist," Vol. 



XXXII, 1919, No. 8, p. 144, I decided to do so, 

 and found the following thirteen species there, viz: 

 Cypripedium hirsutum, C. parviflorum, Habenaria 

 hyperborea, H. obtusata, H. orbiculata, H. dilatata, 

 H. bracteata, Calopogon pulchellus, Arethusa 



