February, 1919] 



The Ottawa Naturalist 



145 



found a little bunch of nine blooms on the outskirts 

 of some woods that had been cut down and had 

 partly grown up again with willows. Although I 

 searched the ground very carefully for a good radius 

 round, I could find no more, and it was not until 

 May 29, of the following year, that I came across 

 three more blooms near a loggmg road in the centre 

 of a wood three miles to the south of the first 

 locality, which was one and one-half miles to the 

 north-west of the village, whilst the latter place was 

 one and one-half miles to the south-west, both of 

 them being of a very swampy nature. This is a 

 much smaller bloom than the next variety, but what 

 it lacks in size it more than makes up for in richness 

 of colour and perfume. 



Var. pubescem (Willdenow) Knight. (Larger 

 YELLOW lady's SLIPPER). On June 18, 1917, one 

 of the village pupils brought two of these blooms to 

 school, she having found them in some woods to the 

 east of the village. The following year in the same 

 direction, and on the same date, strange to say, I 

 found several clusters of blooms in an open space 

 in a dry deciduous wood on some hilly ground, and 

 had previously, on June 6, come across a few ex- 

 amples in another wood to the north-west of the 

 village. These latter examples were quite fresh, 

 but those found on June 18 were far gone, although 

 the two of the year previous on the same date were 

 perfectly fresh. I am inclined to think this variety 

 will be found to be much commoner than the species 

 (for I have since heard that it was taken on June 

 1, near Compton, a village seven miles to the north- 

 east of Hatley) ; at all events its habitat is more 

 accessible to most people, being in dryer situations 

 than that of parviflorum. The blooms although 

 very much larger than the latter are decidedly paler 

 and lack the exquisite perfume of the former. 



Showy lady's slipper, Cypripedium hirsutum 

 Miller. For several years, in fact until 1917, I only 

 knew of one locality for this the handsomest of the 

 Cypripediums if not of all our native orchids, which 

 was on the borders of a little tamarack swamp rather 

 over a mile to the south of the village, where, how- 

 ever, never more than some half-dozen blooms could 

 be found in any one season. Side by side with 

 hirsutum only blooming a little earlier, could be 

 found that charming flower (immortalized by Em- 

 erson) Rhodora (Rhododendron Rhodora), this 

 little sM^amp being also the only locality known to 

 me for the species up to last year (1918), when I 

 heard of another somewhere near Compton. In 

 1917, on June 23, I discovered another locality for 

 hirsutum in the bog already mentioned to the north- 

 east of the village, but on this date only a few 

 blooms were noted. However, in the first week in 

 July, in this same bog, but somewhat further to the 

 north, I came upon it again, together with Arethusa 



hulbosa and Habenaria dilatata literally growing in 

 profusion. It would be impossible to describe my 

 feelings at the time, the blooms of the first named 

 in scores, alone forming a never-to-be-forgotten 

 sight. On June 21 of the following year, I again 

 visited this spot to see how things were progressing, 

 but was horrified to find that a severe frost on the 

 nights of the 18th and 19th had worked terrible 

 havoc, all the plants of C. hirsutum being laid flat 

 on the ground in a dead and blackened state and 

 not a bloom could I find, whilst A. bulbosa and H. 

 dilatata were not much better, although I did succeed 

 in finding two fine blooms of the former in a very 

 sheltered spot, and several of the latter, the date, 

 however, in both cases being somewhat early for 

 these species. In its early stages the foliage of 

 Indian Poke or False Hellebore (Veratrum viride) 

 is much like that of C. hirsutum, and is no doubt 

 often mistaken for it by the novice. My dates for 

 fresh blooms of C. hirsutum (which are fragrant) 

 range from June 14 to July 17. 



Stemless lady's slipper, mocassin flower, 

 Cvpripedium acaule Aiton. It was not until 

 this year (1918) that I was able to locate this beau- 

 tiful orchid, although I had heard rumours of its 

 having been found many years ago in a wood to 

 the west of the village, this exact locality being given 

 to me by the finder himself when visiting Hatley on 

 business in July, 1917, too late, unfortunately, for 

 me to do anything that year. In the following May, 

 however, I visited the spot on the 25th, and after an 

 hour's search found some twenty-five blooms or 

 more in a portion of the wood where there were a 

 number of hemlock trees. The day previous I had 

 accidentally come across five blooms (also under 

 hemlock trees) in a little ravine three miles to the 

 north of Ayers Cliff or about ten miles from Hatley, 

 After this I found a few plants in three other local- 

 ities, two to the north-west of the village, and the 

 other to the south-west. In one of the former I 

 had a red-letter-day find, for I came across two 

 blooms on June 18 in both of which the large lip 

 was snow-white instead of pink. Gray, in his 

 Manual, says lips rarely white. These two blooms 

 were close under the drooping branches of a fir tree 

 on the north side, where it was impossible for the 

 sun to ever reach them, the spot, however, being a 

 very dry one. In every case with the exception of 

 the last named the plants have been found under or 

 in the vicinity of hemlock trees, and in the case of 

 the twenty-five or more, some of these were growing 

 on fallen tree trunks which were in a crumbling 

 state. My dates for fresh blooms range from 

 May 24 to June 18. 



Showy orchis. Orchis spectabiUs Linnaeus. I 

 first became acquainted with this early blooming 

 orchid on June 1, 1912, when in a wood two miles 



