MAY. JUNE, JULY, AND AUGUST. 



99 



canny thing flourishes on decay ; it grows parasit- 

 ically on the roots of other plants, and we may find 

 it oftenest beside the decayed stump of some forest 

 giant, wliere its pearly whiteness is relieved against 

 a background of decaying, moss - covered wood. 

 The flower sometimes has a faint pink flush on 

 its face, but is oftenest as pale as death. There 



is something weirdly sug- 

 gestive in its deathliness : 

 why should it have been 

 named Indian pipe ? It 

 occurred to me once, 

 when I was climbing the 

 slopes of South Mountain 

 in the Catskills and came 

 across a pretty group of 

 the ghostly little pipes, 

 that they were wrongly 

 named ; they should have 

 been called the Pipes of 

 Hudson's Crew. Those 

 of us who have seen the 

 ghostly crew in Jeffer- 

 son's Rip Yan Winkle 

 can easily imagine the gnomelike creatures smoking 

 pale pipes like these. But the weird little plant is 

 as curious in death as it is in life, for immediately 



Indian Pipe. 



