THE AMERICAN BOTANIST • 149 



"three-toothed orchis." The first mentioned is also calletl 

 "vegetable satyr" but for what reason I know not. 



The "yellow orchis" is //. Jhn'a, but one may get an 

 idea of just how yellow it is from its other common names, 

 especially "green rein orchis," "small pale green orchis" and 

 "greenish orchis." It is known as "tuberculed orchis" be- 

 cause of small projections on the coroha. There remains 

 yet to be mentioned among the Habenarias, the "bear's ears" 

 or "great green orchis" (//. orhiculata) a species that looks 

 like a large edition of Orchis roHmdifolia with which it was 

 once classed. This, too, is called "shinplaster" and "sliin leaf" 

 as well as "heal-all," in fact the two species are seldom distin- 

 guished apart by country folk and naturally bear the same 

 names. It is also called "round-leaved orchis" and "large 

 two-leaved orchis." "Bear's ears" refers to the two broad, 

 flat leaves pressed close to the ground, but these do not re- 

 semble the ears of any bear that I have seen. The name of 

 "gall-of-the-earth" applied to our plant seems to hint of 

 medicinal qualities. In the early days a medicine to be im- 

 pressive was necessarily bitter and was regarded as curative 

 in direct proportion to its bitterness. It is doubtful, however, 

 if this species is of any value in medicine. 



The majority of the orchids are rare and retiring. 

 Their means for cross pollination are often most complex 

 and in some cases so much over-specialized as to defeat the 

 end for which they were developed thus contributing to 

 diminishing their numbers instead of increasing them. Since 

 the plants are incapable of pollinating themselves tlie absence 

 of a certain insect may result in the disappearance of the 

 whole race from a neighborhood. A few with small flowers 

 are reported to be occasionally pollinated by mosquitos but 

 this is no justification for sparing these insects. Among 

 tbc insignificant species may be mentioned the "tway-blades" 



