26 Bog-Trotting for OrcHids 



A glance through these glooms revealed another 

 colony of the Showy or White-petalled Lady's Slippers 

 just bursting forth from the earth, perhaps four inches 

 high. I have found them frequently in these bogs, 

 when full- grown, standing three feet tall, but the usual 

 height is about two feet ; and in open meadow swamps 

 often only eighteen inches, owing to the crowded soil, 

 choked with grasses and low shrubs. In about three 

 weeks these bogs would be gay with dainty Moccasin- 

 Flowers. 



In the upper part of this swamp, I found a rather 

 quaking corner devoted entirely to the deep green 

 leaves and tall, white-bearded spikes of the not com- 

 mon Buckbean {Menyanthes trifoliatd), a distant cousin 

 of the Blue Fringed Gentian. I know of several colo- 

 nies of this rare plant in the bogs hereabout, where it 

 grows plentifully, in its pet localities. It is liable to 

 grow ever undisturbed, I am sure, since it chooses such 

 dangerous swarnps in which to flourish. 



Thoreau mentions that Hodge the geologist once 

 found at least an acre of this species. He writes: " We 

 reached Shad Pond, or Noliseemack, an expansion of 

 the river. Hodge, the assistant State Geologist, who 

 passed through this region on the 25th of June, 1837, 

 says, * We pushed our boats through an acre or more 

 of buck-beans, which had taken root at the bottom, 

 and bloomed above the surface in the greatest profusion 

 and beauty.' " ^ 



After leaving this jungle, — which reminded me of 

 * Thoreau, The Maine Woods, p. 34. 



