66 THE ORCHIDS OF NEW ENGLAND. 



but this is evidently only a natural corruption of the name 

 given in the old botanies, Ladies' Traces, which likened the 

 arrangement of the flowers to the traces or strings of a 

 bodice. 



Spiranthes is intermediate between Goodyera and Listera. 

 " In Spiranthes," says Meehan, " there are callous protuber- 

 ances at the base of the lip ; the other genera have none. 

 Listera has sepals and petals spreading, the petals of the others 

 are ringent (or gaping) at the base. In some cases of Spi- 

 ranthes, the rachis, or that part of the stem to which the flowers 

 are attached, is perfectly straight and only the flowers seemed 

 coiled around it, while in other species it is screw-like and seems 

 to carry the flowers with it as it coils." " Gaping " describes 

 most admirably the appearance of the tubular blossoms. The 

 stem of 5. latifolia is " naked or leafy below ; the roots clus- 

 tered-tuberous," to quote superficially from Gray. The arrange- 

 ments for fertilization are probably similar to those of S. gracilis 

 and S. cernua, and I reserve a description of the process until 

 I come to those later species. Meehan states that these 

 Orchids are seldom, if ever, obtained beyond the Mississippi. 



I have found Spiranthes latifolia quite high up on mountain 

 roads when hunting for another Orchid that requires cold and 

 dampness, Habenaria dilatata. The latter, it is safe to assume, 

 is associated in many a mind with a Maine carry, a White 

 Mountain flume, or a Green Mountain notch. Perhaps you 

 recall the very spot, a green nook near the limpid pool in 

 which you dipped your hands; or it may have been higher up 

 where white-throated sparrows were whistling through the mist, 

 and icy springs came trickling through beds of moss and snow- 

 berry, and the bleak summit was almost gained. 



H. dilatata, the Northern White Orchis, has been often con- 

 founded with H. hyperborea, the Northern Green Orchis, as by 

 Sir William Hooker, who feared it was only a luxuriant form 

 of the latter, and by Dewey, who, in his Herbaceous Plants 



