THE ORCHIDS OF NEW ENGLAND. 



12/ 



By the middle of September the nights at the North have 

 become sparkling and frosty. My favorite spring in the woods 

 is choked with leaves ; the blue-stemmed golden-rods and the 

 tick-seeds begin to look a little discouraged, but it is still too 

 early for dolorous poems on the death of the flowers and man's 

 mortality. If I go in to the forest there is bustle and noise 

 on every side : the crows are gossiping over the scandalous 

 thefts of the blackbirds ; the jays are making their usual ado 

 about nothing; the downy woodpeckers glide up the trees call- 

 ing " poort ! poort ! " whatever that may mean ; the squirrels 

 are poking nuts into the ground with their noses, covering each 

 one with nervous little taps of their paws, and as they know 

 perfectly well I cannot find their hoards, though I go down on 

 hands and knees, the beratings I get for looking on are quite 

 uncalled for. Outside, the western sloping meadows are warm, 

 and sprinkled with not a few daisies and dandelions; I even 

 find some violets. The old orchards are full of bluebirds, come 

 like professional singers to cheat us by twittering " last fare- 

 wells ; " and so, under the rich sky, it is no wonder that our 

 most beautiful Ladies' Tresses, Spiranthes cermia, has conde- 

 scended to open her fragrant, cream-white chalices: and leaving 

 out of mind 5. gracilis, sometimes found in October, I like to 

 think of it as ending the Orchid season ; the only species that 

 month can rightfully call her own. 



5. cermia is popularly called the Drooping or Nodding-flow- 

 ered Ladies' Tresses, and in the old botanies, the Nodding-flow- 

 ered Neottia. It is very common in low ground, but varies so 

 in height, and in the number and size of its flowers, that one 

 ignorant of botanical distinctions cannot be blamed for mis- 

 taking it for other species. As to time, too, though it is late 

 blooming with us, I have known it to come as early as August 

 20th, in Berkshire Co., Mass. Two characteristic features of 

 this species are that, as Hooker expresses it, "the lateral sepals 

 cohere with the upper one and the petals for nearly their whole 



