THE ORCHIDS OF NEW ENGLAND. 03 



Having living specimens of these three Orchids in my garden, 

 this fall (1883), I have taken pains to note the dates when 

 their leaves appeared : Calypso, Sept. 2d ; Aplectrum, Sept. 

 9th ; Tipularia, Sept. 14th. As T. discolor blossoms late in 

 July, it has, one might say, but little rest from toil, and some- 

 how the wriggling spur and spreading sepals and petals convey 

 the idea that the plant really has a good deal of business on 

 hand. My drawing was made, I should add, from a fine and 

 large specimen. 



A meadow in midsummer presents the same temptation to a 

 pedestrian that an untracked sheet of ice does to a school-boy. 

 There is a great satisfaction in making the first break in the 

 soft, undulating expanse that resists the knees so feebly ; and 

 your path is sure to be a winding one, for on this side and that, 

 lilies, rues and spiraeas beckon, and as their beauty will not avail 

 them when the scythe is whetted, why should you not antici- 

 pate it? If the ground is at all damp and the meadow skirts 

 some woods, notices to trespassers will fail to daunt the 

 stubborn man who is after Fringed Orchises and suspects that 

 some are secreted among the bushy knolls and hummocks. 



Habcnaria fimbriata (O. grandiflora), the Large Purple or 

 Tattered-fringe Orchis, less common than the smaller and 

 later species, H. psycodes, is claimed for June by Rhode Island ; 

 while dates from Burlington, Vt., Claremont, N. H., and Mt. 

 Desert, Me., would seem to indicate July as its proper period 

 northward. I have seen leaves as broad as a man's hand, 

 and I think it has as opulent and self-assured an air as any 

 of our Orchids. Its loose, feathery spike, which saves it 

 from any imputation of coarseness, always suggests to me a 

 flock of birds struggling to get foot-hold on the same branch. 

 A curious specimen was reported to the American Naturalist, 

 not long ago by Mr. W. W. Denslow, of Massachusetts, in 

 which the flowers were all abnormally developed and destitute 

 of both fringes and spurs, and the herbarium of Columbia Col- 



