66 NATURE STUDY 



often strong and bold, combines with the stridulation of 

 the insects to give a peculiarly distinctive character to the 

 mild evenings of our early and middle fall. 



An Aristocratic Family. IV. 



BY FREDERICK W. BATCHEI^DER. 



A still hunt for orchids is one of the most delightful ex- 

 periences the true lover of nature can enjo}\ The glori- 

 ous uncertainty as to what he will find and where he will 

 find it imparts piquancy to the search. There is no fami- 

 ly of plants whose members are so irregular in their habits 

 and consequently so elusive and so exasperating. For one 

 thing, many of them are hard to see, though they maj^ be 

 within the range of vision. A green plant growing in a 

 tangle of other green things is not easily distinguished un- 

 less its flowers are conspicuous. In some species of or- 

 chids the flowers are greenish or dull white, and many a 

 time I have found the plants trampled under my feet when, 

 as I supposed, I had been making the closest possible 

 search for them, Again, if one has found a certain spe- 

 cies in a certain section one season he naturally expects to 

 find it in the same place the next season. He will do well 

 not to stake much money on his expectations, for orchids 

 have the curious habit of taking long rests. Perhaps they 

 have made such tremendous efforts to secure cross-fertili- 

 zation that they have not strength enough left to serve them 

 through several successive seasons. 



And again, notwithstanding the fact that orchids pro- 

 duce an enormous quantity of seeds, so that if all germi- 

 nated and matured there would very soon be no room on 

 our globe for anything else, the competition of other plants 

 keeps them in check, and they are scarcely able to hold 

 their own. This last fact makes them peculiarly liable to 



