CHOCORUA. 225 



arm. This chamber, which faces southwest- 

 ward, is about twenty-five feet from the ground, 

 dry within but unfurnished. The owlets have 

 no feather beds to sleep on, no nest to keep 

 them warm. Thinking that the mother of my 

 most recent captive might have laid again, I had 

 the owl castle searched, but found nothing. 



The flowers of the week were the cornel, 

 fringed polygala, cow-lily, purple and white vio- 

 lets, blue-eyed grass, clintonia, and hawthorn. 

 The dark swamps were dotted with the yellow 

 moccasin flowers, and in the higher, drier woods 

 the pink lady's-slipper abounded. The varia- 

 tion in color in the pink lady's-slipper is wide 

 for a wild plant not separated into recognized 

 varieties. From normal, the color varies both 

 ways, to extremely dark carmine and to pure 

 white. In some of the white ones even the 

 veining is immaculate. I found two distorted 

 flowers of the pink species which suggested a 

 reversion to a less elaborate and morphologically 

 effective form. The flowers which were passing 

 away were the trailing arbutus, of which I 

 found only one plant still blooming and fra- 

 grant ; the apple blossoms, which were whitening 

 the grass like snow ; the trilliums, hobble bush, 

 choke cherry, rhodora, uvularia and anemone. 

 The flowers just coming forward were the lin- 

 nsea, white orchis, fleur-de-lis, and clover. 



