I02 Bog-Trotting for Orchids 



eight inches long by seven wide. It bore a tall, 

 bracted spike of greenish- white flowers, — strange, fan- 

 tastic shapes, trimmed with spurs and hoods and capes. 

 This spike of flowers rose straight up from between the 

 two round basal leaves. It was about two feet high 

 originally, but had been broken, doubtless by the hail- 

 storms of June. The common names of the Round- 

 I^eaved Orchises hereabout are "Shin-plaster" and 

 "Heal-all," since they are applied to bruised shins, 

 and are used as plasters for weak lungs. Thoreau, in 

 Maine Woods, gives even larger dimensions of the 

 Great Green Orchis found by him in the vicinity 

 of Mud Pond, Moosehead and Chamberlain Carries, 

 Maine, — where he reported it very common in July. 



I sat for some time admiring this weird plant; when 

 finding that it had sown seed the former season, I 

 decided to transport it to a garden of civilization, 

 to see if it would take kindly to cultivation. Then I 

 turned westward, following the sluggish yet sparkling 

 stream down from Cold Spring. At times the stream 

 was almost hidden by moss, through which it crept 

 slowly. 



This brook enters a large, open, meadow marsh, — 

 the ancient lake bed of which I have spoken before, — 

 the Chalk Pond hollow. Since it is now drained, it 

 appears to be a promising soil in which to seek the 

 Purple-Fringed Habenarias in the proper season. I 

 found the leaves of a plant which I believe to have 

 been that of one of the Purple-Fringed Orchises, but 

 from its producing no flowers this season I was not 



