THKOUGH BRISTOL SWAMP. 77 



Bristol Bog-Trotter has, during his lifetime, raided these 

 marshes and rocky monntainsides in order to supply several 

 florists and dealers of hardy plants. The Ram's-ITead Cypripe- 

 dium bring him three or four cents each, while the larger species 

 yield ten to fifteen cents a plant. Frequently nature is allowed 

 a rest for a season or two, in order to multiply and restore 

 her seedlings in these haunts. 



Orchids, as a family, do not reproduce seedlings rapidly. 

 Their seeds are uncertain and slow iu gennination. Manv nat- 

 ural and unnatural causes conspire against their development. 

 It often takes four or five seasons to produce plants robust 

 enough to bloom. Constant gathering of the older plants for a 

 series of seasons would soon bring about their total extinction. 



But notwithstanding the raids of the flower dealers, the 

 Bristol swamp area is still a delightful, wild garden for many 

 students, including President Ezra Brainard of Middlebury, 

 and Willard W. Eggleston of Rutland. It was from these scd- 

 itudes that Cyrus G. Pringle also collected the fresh plants of 

 the Bam's-Head Cypri}>edium, and Orcltis rotundi folia, which 

 made happy the heart of Professor Asa Gray. Here, too, the 

 ''Bristol Bog-Trotter" has introduced many a wanderer like 

 myself. Indeed it is holy ground over which the early botanists 

 have exulted in newly discovered treasures, and where many 

 more nature students may still make rare finds. 



Natural clearings occur in the center of the marsh along 

 O'Neil's sluggish brook — wild meadows indeed, where luxu- 

 riant feras flourish, and where grasses are rare. This is the 

 home of Bootts' Shield-Fern {Dryopterus BooHU), the pride of 

 my guide. Slightly east of the stream a woodman's road leads 

 northward under the brow of the mountain to Mud pond. 

 Everywhere along these trails beneath the cedars the Ram's 

 Heads jyeep, and in its season the Round-Leaved Orchis (Orchis 

 rotundifolia), blooms. Beautiful Calypso {Calypso hulhosa), 

 was collected here by the early botanists, but it is said to be 

 extinct to-day. 



One of the most channing corners of the South swamp 



