WHITE 



with the cool chaste beauty of the meadow rue. The staminate 

 flowers of this plant are especially delicate and feathery. 



U 



LADIES' TRESSES. 



Spiranthes cernna. Orchis Family. 



Stem. — Leafy below, leafy- bracted above; six to twenty inches high. 

 Leaves. — Linear-lance-shaped; the lowest elongated. Flcnvers. — White; 

 fragrant ; the lips wavy or crisped ; growing in slender spikes. 



- This pretty little orchid is found in great abundance in Sep- 

 tember and October. The botany relegates it to '' wet places," 

 but I have seen dry upland pastures as well as low -lying swamps 

 profusely flecked with its slender, fragrant spikes. The braided 

 appearance of these spikes would easily account for the popular 

 name of ladies' tresses ; but we learn that the plant's English 

 name was formerly " ladies' traces,'^ from a fancied resemblance 

 between its twisted clusters and the lacings which played so im- 

 portant a part in the feminine toilet. I am told that in parts of 

 New England the country people have christened the plant 

 " wild hyacinth," 



The flowers of ^. gracilis are very small, and grow in a much 

 more slender, one-sided spike than those of S. cernua. They 

 are found in the dry woods and along the sandy hill-sides from 

 July onward. 



DEVIL'S BIT. BLAZING STAR. 



Chamceliritim CaroUniamim. Lily Family. 



One to four feet high, the staminate plant taller. Leaves. — The lower 

 wedge-shaped, obtuse, tapering into a petiole ; the upper, linear, pointed. 

 Flowers. — White. The pistillate and staminate growing on different plants, 

 in a long wand-like, spiked raceme. Perianth. — Of six white segments; 

 staminate flowers with six stamens, pistillate flowers with one pistil having 

 three short styles. 



From May to July the oft-times nodding staminate clusters, 

 and the stiff erect pistillate spikes of the devil's bit may be found 

 in many of our wet meadows, from Massachusetts to Florida. 



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