148 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 



its bright color makes it "gay orchis." Baldwin's "Orchids 

 of New England reports that it is called "preacher-in-the- 

 pupit" in the Middle States, in allusion to the erect flower- 

 spike between the two leaves. The "small round-leaved 

 orchis" (O. rotundifolia) is known as "heal-all" and has 

 some reputation, possibly undeserved, in the domestic materia 

 medica. The names of "shinplasters" and "shin-leaf" are 

 doubtless mere matters of fancy since the plant in any case 

 has no efficacy in healing broken shins. 



A number of species in the Habenaria genus are called 

 "fringed orchises" because the lip is cut into narrow seg- 

 ments. The most common of these are the two "purple 

 fringed" species (Habenaria finibriata and H. psycodes), 

 distinguished as the "large-" and "-small-" fringed orchisea 

 respectively. Habenaria psycodes is also the "pink-fringed 

 orchis," the "flaming orchis" and "soldier's plume," while 

 H. fimbriata is the "tattered fringed orchis" and "meadow 

 pink." To call this species "long purples" and "dead man's 

 fingers" is simply to drag over from the foxglove two names 

 by which one of Shakespeare's characters refers to it in 

 "Hamlet." The "green fringed orchis" is H. lac'era and the 

 specific name accounts foir the name of "ragged orchis." 

 It is very evident that the line dividing the ragged from the 

 fringed is an extremely narrow one. in thjs genus. Two 

 magnificent species are the "white fringed orchis" (//. 

 blephariglottis) and the "yellow fringed orchis" (H. ciliaris). 

 The latter is called "rattlesnake's master" which means noth- 

 ing because it does not grow where snakes abound and is not 

 a cure for their bites. Another white-flowered Habenaria 

 of the West is H. Icucophaea called the "white-flowered ^ 

 prairie orchis." The "bracted green orchis" or "long bracted 

 orchis" is H. bractcata while a second green species is H. 

 clavellata, otherwise known as "green wood orchis," and 



