THROUGH BRISTOL SWAMP. 79 



Vermont. Such haunts offer it a sniio' winter home. It re- 

 sembles our native partridge, save that it is much larger and 

 tamer. Questions have arisen among the fanners as to this 

 2>heasant taking favorably to domestication. 



The Arhor vitae swamps of northern Vermont are the 

 homes of many flowers and shrubs rarely observed in southern 

 'New England. These marshes are liable to remain undis- 

 turbed and undrained for a period unknown. The floor of the 

 region is level and the drainage of the vast area is consequently 

 sluggish. 



The lowlands between Hoosac valley and Lake Champlain 

 bear evidence of an ancient glacial sea, which rippled through 

 these now decadent lake beds not so many thousand centuries 

 agone; and moulded the glacial hills everywhere evident to-day. 

 In many of these deep sea-hollows, piles of shells' are still crumb- 

 ling in decay, and forming the deposit known as marl. Peat 

 moss (Sphagnum), also carpets the floor of many conifer 

 marshes, and it is due to the vast areas of this soil that the 

 rarer flowers and ferns flourish. 



A noticeable shrub in Bristol swamp, as well as in the bogs 

 of Etchowog, in southern Vermont, is the Cranberry-tree 

 {Vihiirnum Opulus), which produces an acid fruit similar to 

 that of the bog cranberry. A species of conifer — wholly unfa- 

 miliar to me — in southern Vennont grows abundant in Bristol, 

 creeping over the hillsides and beneath the hemlocks bordering 

 the cedar swamps. It appeared to be a low juniper. 



A month later, about June 20th, the Showy Queen of our 

 Moccasin-Flowers {Cypvlpedium reglnae), will make these 

 glooms glorious with her alert, dancing slip}>ers. These flowers 

 are among the most gorgeous orchids in the world, and certainly 

 are the most showy of our delicately tinted Moccasin-Flowers 

 in New England. The wax-like texture of the sepals and 

 petals, together with the dainty poise of the whole flower, give 

 the impression of fairies dancing in the twilight, as one beholds 

 themi in the dim shades of cedar and hemlock. The foliage is 

 coarse and strongly suggests that of Indian-Poke with which it 



