78 Dog-Trotting for Orchids 



dwarf double spruces, hidden from the sight of travel- 

 lers in the path by a prostrate tree trunk and decaying 

 primeval pine stump. I observed this colony years 

 ago, and this season it appeared the same to me, 

 occupying a space about two feet square. I counted 

 forty-two full-grown flowers, many stems bearing two 

 blossoms. This indeed was one of the most charming 

 sights, suggesting the luxuriance of the humid climate 

 of the tropics. It was even more enchanting than the 

 colony of Pink Moccasin-Flowers, — that famous group 

 of two hundred buds which the children in District 

 Fourteen secured ahead of me, since this group of 

 flowers were massed more closely together. I wished 

 a sight of the Pink Moccasin-Flowers at their best. I 

 left these, too, undisturbed save by the little moths 

 and mosquitoes and honeybees, which came to drink 

 the nectar within the pearly pink and white cups. 



Notwithstanding the recent hailstorms, which had 

 split many cups and spilt the dew, the flowers were 

 developing plump, hard seed-capsules. Thousands of 

 fertile seeds must fall and fly about from this colony; 

 and yet the aged snarl of roots remains the same. 



A unique row of seedlings of this species (^Cypripe- 

 dium regincB) too young to blossom, and reminding one 

 of a row of barn-swallows, not yet sufiiciently matured 

 to fly, grew along a moss-covered pine log, near the 

 parent colony of plants. Digging down, I found the 

 old log about twelve inches below the surface. It was 

 sound at the heart, bare ot its outer bark, and had be- 

 come so imbedded in the water-soaked peat as to be 



