WILD, OR NATIVE FLOWERS. 73 



Grass-Pink — Calopogon pidchellus, (R. Br.) 



(PLATE VII.) 



Our open, springy Poplar flats, partially shaded by Aspen shrubs 

 and wild grasses, afford shelter to many a rare Orchid. The warm rays 

 of the sun acting on the moist, boggy soil, quicken into life and 

 loveliness one of the most ornamental of our Orchidaceous plants. 

 In the month of July we find that very beautiful flower, the Grass-Pink, 

 or Calopogon. Its flowers are little known, and may indeed truly be 

 said to waste their sweetness on the desert air. 



From a round, solid corm, about a quarter of an inch in diameter, 

 rises a bright green sword-shaped leaf, which clasps at its base a tall 

 scape, bearing a loose four to eight-flowered raceme of elegant rose or 

 lilac-coloured flowers. The lower blossoms open first. The form of the 

 flower is peculiar ; the concave upper petal or lip is bearded with yellow 

 and purple hairs arching over the column, which is winged and free. 

 The bright reddish-purple sepals and petals are pointed and fragrant ; 

 the scape rises to the height of from eighteen inches to two feet. A bed 

 of these elegant flowers, when in bloom, is a charming sight. 



Another of our Orchids is the lovely and rare Aj-ethusa biilbosa, (L) 

 the flower of which is no less remarkable for the beauty of its form and 

 rich colouring than the Calopogon. The colour of the ringent corolla 

 is of a deep, rich rose-purple, and it is very sweetly scented ; the scape has 

 occasionally one grassy leaf Not less singular is the charming Calypso 

 iorealis {^Si\\sh.)ov Bird's-foot Orchis, with its graceful, deliciously-sceuted, 

 pendulous flowers, and crested lip, bearded with yellow and pink, and its 

 narrow, twisted and waved, pale pink sepals and petals ; the scape is 

 garnished with one oval shield-shaped shining leaf of dark glossy green. 

 It flowers in the month of May. Another elegant bog-plant is the 



Small Round-leaved Orchis — Flalantliera }'otundifolia, (Rich.) 



(PLATE VII.) 



" Your voiceless lips, O flowers, are living preacheis ; 



Each cup a pulpit, and each leaf a book." 

 " Floral apostles that in dewy splendour 



Weep without woe and blush without a crime. ' — Horace Smith. 



This is one of the lovely native plants of the Orchis family, of which 

 we boast many remarkable for beauty as well as for the eccentric forms 

 which arise from the peculiar arrangement of their floral organs. 



The one above named is worthy of attention. Our quaint old 

 herbalists would have called it the Holy Dove, or some such name, from 

 the curious resemblance that the petals and sepals take to the body and 

 extended white wings of a hovering Dove. The lower lobed petal 



