ORCHIS SPECTABILIS. SHOWY ORCHIS, 55 



now the only representative of the genus Orchis, as estabhshed 

 by Linnaeus, which we have in the United States, and even this 

 was transferred by Sprengel to Habaiaria. 



Most of our Orchids, that we should call pretty, seem to 

 prefer growing in open places; but this is one of the few which 

 deliM-it in the shade and shelter of the woods, where it is among 

 the later spring flowers to bloom. In Pennsylvania, it is to be 

 found in the early part of the month of June, and probably a 

 little earlier or later, as it grows northward or southward of 

 this. Dr. Gray gives its range as from " New England to 

 Kentucky, especially northward." Botanists generally do not 

 report it as very abundant in any one place. The writer has 

 seldom been able to gather more than a dozen or two on any 

 one botanical excursion, though it is doubtless more plentiful in 

 some places. Dr. Darlington, in his Flora Cestrica, speaks of it 

 as being frequent in the rich woods of Chester County, Pa., and 

 as havino; the common name there of " Preacher in the Pulpit." 

 It seems, however, to have no popular name in other parts of 

 the United States. Dr. Gray, in the Manual, simply translates 

 its scientific name, " Showy Orchis." 



Generally speaking, our native terrestrial Orchids are impa- 

 tient of culture. They will sometimes do well for a few years, 

 but usually disappear in time. This one has not been tried to 

 any great extent, but would no doubt transplant well to places 

 similar to those in which it is found naturally, and might then 

 perhaps spread, and do well. It could be made to succeed, if 

 the same amount of skill were brought to bear on it which the 

 intelligent cultivator gives to the epiphytal species from the 

 tropics. 



It is interesting to note that, while most of the true Orchises 

 of Europe have a tuberous root in addition to the fibres, our 

 species has fleshy fibres only. In the foreign species, there are a 

 pair of these tubers, one of the past and the other of the present 

 season's growth, the one growing out of, and seemingly being 

 supported by the other, and at length appearing to draw wholly 



