i8o Bog'-Trotting for Orchids 



willows, and beautiful green spires of tamarack -trees. 

 The sphagnum was many feet deep, spangled with 

 flowers; and rising above the swamp grasses were iris 

 blades and buckbean leaves. It was a little world 

 whose limitations were the infinite blues above, the 

 depths of moss below, and the circling green-fringed 

 forest trees. The sunshine knew the field, and poured 

 in upon it. I was obliged to wade slowly over the 

 quaking sphagnum, assisted by pine-slabs, strewn about 

 as stepping blocks. 



The oblong green leaves of the rare Buckbeans (^Men- 

 yanthes trifoliata) — found also in the Cranberry Bogs, 

 north of Pownal Pond — were here thickly entangled 

 over the greater area of the meadow. A few spikes 

 still were in blossom, although the greater portion 

 were adorned with the bullet-like glossy, smooth seed- 

 pods. Later in the season they would slowly ripen, 

 and throw thousands of seeds broadcast over the 

 sphagnous field. It is evident that this plant — so in- 

 frequent in its general distribution — is most productive 

 of its own seeds in its chosen haunts. This species is 

 a sister genus of the Blue-Fringed Gentians, abundant 

 along the edges of these bogs during October. Gen- 

 tians derived their generic name from King Gentius of 

 lUyria, who first used them in medicine. 



The Floating- Heart {Linifianthemum lacunosum)^ 

 closely allied to the Buckbeans, grows also in our 

 marshy pools, the leaves being heart-shaped, instead 

 of oblong as those of Menyanthes, 



In the middle of this swamp an island arose, over 



