NATURE STUDY. 



PUBLISHED UNDER THE AUSPICES OF THE 



Manchester Institute of Arts and Sciences. 



Vol. III. Jnne, 1902. No. i. 



An Aristocratic Family. I. 



BY FREDERICK W. BATCHELDER. 



The family is so very aristocratic and so very old that it 

 might be expected to be small in numbers. Such, how- 

 ever, is not the case. It is one of the largest of all the fam- 

 ilies in the plant world. There are no less than 5000 spe- 

 cies alreadj' known. The little cold corner of the earth 

 which goes by the name of New England can claim one 

 per cent of these, or just about fifty species. Some of 

 these are so small and their flowers so inconspicuous as to 

 be little known, except to botanists. Others are among 

 the most beautiful of our wild plants. 



About the last of April I begin to look for our first local 

 orchid. It is one of the little ones, but none the less in- 

 teresting that it is small. It thrusts itself up through the 

 sodden leaves in rich woods where little brooks plaj^ hide 

 and seek with the mos.sy rocks and the sunshine. The 

 stem, or more correctly, scape, is from three to eight inches 

 high, naked except for a few sheathing scale-like bracts, 

 and bears at the top a raceme of very small flowers on 

 short pedicels. The color of the whole plant is at first 



