AN ARISTOCRATIC FAMILY. 89 



the latter being the very last of our orchids to bloom. S. 

 gracilis is the one with root-leaves small or wanting, which 

 blooms in grassy places in August and September. The 

 delicate white or greenish flowers are arranged in a slen- 

 der spike which is apparently spiral, from the twisting of 

 the axis, and they are most deliciously fragrant. About 

 the last of August ^. Ccriiua begins to bloom, and the 

 cheer\' spikes ma}' be seen in September and October, long 

 after the frosts have killed the more sensitive plants. An 

 appropriate name is that by which it goes in country 

 places, "frost flower." The plants have long grass-like 

 leaves and a rather stout many-flowered spike, which is 

 more or less twisted in different individuals. ^According 

 to the manuals, the species in this genus are divided into 

 two groups, those with three-ranked and those with two- 

 ranked spikes. 6". cermta is placed in the three-ranked 

 group. This described character was the cause of some 

 embarrassment to me in my early daj's of botanical study, 

 for I very soon found plants in which the spikes were evi- 

 dently not three-ranked. The inference was natural that 

 these plants belonged to some other species. The other 

 characters, however, fitted no description but that of 5. 

 cerniia. Any one who will take pains to examine these 

 plants will find the form of inflorescence various, some- 

 times three-ranked, sometimes apparently one-ranked, at 

 any rate, not three-ranked. As to the spike, sometimes it 

 is straight, sometimes twisted, and most twisted when the 

 flowers are apparently in one rank. I hope in some future 

 article to treat of this subject more fully. 



With the close of this series of articles on " An Aristo- 

 cratic Family" closes also the orchid season of 1902. 

 With the object of stimulating obser\'ation and discovery 

 next season, when these uncanny plants shall again lay 

 their schemes for enslaving the insect tribes and thus se- 



