1 86 Bog-Trotting for OrcHids 



unfolded in their perfection of magenta coloring, I put 

 up a warning on a tree near them not to rob the 

 colonj'' until photographed, — fearing some fisherman 

 would behold and gather the blossoms. However, 

 they were photographed successfull}^ on the 20th. 



The stumps and trees in this corner of the swamp 

 are covered with dead boughs, laden with lichens and 

 reindeer moss. A kind of moss known as Usnea hangs 

 from the boughs of the trees above. The whole region 

 is humid and luxuriant, and could almost deceive one 

 into believing that he was in the jungles of the South- 

 lands, instead of among the glooms of the Green 

 Mountains. The beautiful Butterfly-fungus i^Poly- 

 pores) is especially interesting throughout this swamp, 

 growing on dead trees and logs. Another pretty 

 species, found on stumps and the earth, has scarlet- 

 tinted cups, nestling in early spring amid the mosses. 

 The trees and stones display both their gray and 

 foliaceous lichens everywhere hereabout; and in the 

 fields, the smoking pufi"-balls burst beneath the foot- 

 steps. Foxes Fire-Eyes is common in this region. It 

 is decaying wood, green in color, said to be full of 

 threads of phosphorescent fungi. During the night 

 this wood gives out a soft, luminous light, which if it 

 happens to come from a large stump, often frightens 

 both travellers and horses along our woodland roads. 



In the Swamp of Rattlesnake Brook may be found 

 the Pitch or Torch-Pine (^Pmus rigidd), shad-bushes, 

 white and black birches, chestnuts, high huckleberries, 

 and small bushes of the Ague Tree {Sassafras), which 



