172 Bog-Trotting for OrcKids 



Round-Leaved Orchis, so seldom found in the lower 

 vales. It proved to be a seedling, too j^oung to bloom. 

 The leaves were like large saucers, and of a beautiful 

 silvery green underneath. The plant is always sug- 

 gestive of the luxuriant tropics. I marked the corner, 

 and shielded it from any chance vandal eye with a 

 broken branch of black birch. 



The slopes leading to Cold Spring, in the hollow be- 

 low, were abrupt, and I was forced to slide most of the 

 distance, clinging to the bushes. I came out at the 

 foot of the hill in the midst of a colony of Sweet Canada 

 Violets ( Viola Canadensis) in full bloom. They grew 

 along the borders of a little brook flowing through a 

 dense thicket of soft maple and black birches. I had 

 never before found this species in flower here. It 

 seemed to have flown down from the heights of the 

 Dome, to grace this swamp. Belated purple birthroot 

 and its sister, the painted trillium, were still nodding 

 here. There were also a few pale-faced priests-in-the- 

 pulpit, unlike the larger coarse purple ones found in 

 Bronx Valley. These Indian Turnips are not abundant 

 here as in the swamps and hills of Mosholu. The wuld 

 leek of genus Allium seeks the higher mountainsides. 



I followed the Canadensis Brook to the edge of the 

 Swamp of Oracles, crossing Ball Brook at the junction 

 of these streams. I penetrated where the rarer orchids 

 dwell, and where few children dare to travel. I was 

 still too early for the Showy Queen Moccasin-Flower, 

 but on time for the large and the small golden slippers, 

 as well as the Pink Acaule — that humble two-leaved 



