ORCHID FAMILY 



blooming period lasts into late October in wet 

 meadows and grassy swamps. 



The characteristic twist that lies deep in the 

 nature of every Orchid shows itself here, not 

 only in the twist of the ovary, which turns the 

 flower upside down, but also in the peculiar 

 spiral form with which the three ranks of small 

 white flowers wind themselves around the flower 

 stem. It grows from six to twenty inches high, 

 and earlier in the season had leaves, but they 

 usually disappear before the flowering period. 

 Spiranthes cernua is a lady of three tresses, while 

 there are several of the group who have but one, 

 notably Spiranthes gracilis, who lives in dry 

 fields and open woods, and wanders at will from 

 Nova Scotia to Minnesota and southward to 

 Louisiana and Florida. 



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