1917] The Ottawa Naturalist. 135 



Mediola virginiana L. Indian Cucumber-root. 



This plant attracts attention by its tall floculent stem with a 

 central whorl of large pointed leaves, usually about six in 

 number, and a terminal whorl of smaller leaves from which 

 depend the small lily-form flowers on slender pedicels. The 

 most prolific localities for it are the rich woods of the Laurentian 

 Hills. Kirk's Ferry, P.Q., flowers and fruit, July 6, 1905; 

 Cascades, P.Q., flowers, June 19, 1906. 



Habenaria flava (L.) Gray. Small Pale Green Orchis. 



The habitat of this plant is a marshy river-front where its 

 pale green spike of blossoms is inconspicuous amid the sedges 

 and other plants among which it is dispersed. On July 5, 1906, 

 it was found in some abundance on the shore near the Country 

 Club, P.Q., and on July 21, 1907, in the same locality it was 

 less numerous, having been badly trampled by cattle which seek 

 the river either to drink or stand in the water, and destroy much 

 of the littoral vegetation. 



Habenaria psycodes (L.) Sw. Smaller Purple-fringed Orchis. 



The tall purplish spikes of bloom appear some seasons in 

 great abundance and beautify the low meadows and roadsides 

 which are their usual habitat. The Beaver Meadow, Hull, P.Q., 

 was often richly adorned in July with these charming plants but, 

 alas! the devastation and ravages of the extensions of Hull are 

 fast destroying the beautiful scenes to which the Field-Natural- 

 ists' Club frequently resorted to study the rich fauna and flora. 

 The winding creek overshadowed by stately elms, with all the 

 wealth of bloom which made gay the luscious meadow, and the 

 many rare plants, which combined to make this area so enticing 

 to the botanist and constituted it a profitable collecting ground 

 for the entomologist and a rich reserve for the bird lovers, are 

 vanishing. Collected at Chelsea, P.Q., Tulv 9, 1905, and Hull. 

 July 15, 1905. 



Habenaria fimbriata (Ait.)R. Br. Large Purple-fringed Orchis. 



This species is distinguished from the preceding by its larger 

 and paler blossoms and is much more local and rare. The best 

 locality known to me was a small area of springy ground near a 

 cedar swamp in the deep woods north of Chelsea, but this habitat 

 will probably have been destroyed by the fires which followed the 

 cutting down of the beautiful forest. Instead of grateful shade 

 and lovely woodland vistas, there are left the crumbling rocks 

 denuded of soil and desolate with the blackened trunks and 

 stumps of the forest monarchs. Plants collected in the locality 

 described on July 1, 1906, and July 7, 1907. An unusually 

 large and massive spike was found on July 1, 1906, on the edge 

 of the railway ditch near Kirk's Ferry. Unfortunately these 



