I04 WHITE TO CxREEX 



A plant impossible to mistake, for its roots are exactly like 

 branches of coral, composed of thick, white, blunt fibres, and 

 may be found in moist shady places. The flowers grow in a 

 raceme on single, thick, fleshy stems, that are clothed with 

 closely sheathed bracts and are of a queer purplish-green 

 colour, frequently marked with white. It has no leaves. 



The Coral-root is a sapropJiytc ; that is to say, it lives upon 

 the dead and decomposing forms of other plants, and this 

 explains why it is such a vegetable degenerate of the beau- 

 tiful family of orchids. It has lost its leaves, also its cJilo- 

 ropJiyll, or honest green colouring matter, through its bad 

 habits, and to-day belongs to that pirate tribe which feeds 

 upon food already assimilated by another, and thereby incurs 

 the displeasure of Nature, whose laws demand honest conduct 

 in her kingdom as sternly as do those of man ; and so, when 

 the Coral-root refused to manufacture its own upbuilding 

 materials out of the carbon dioxide of the atmosphere, and 

 proceeded to prey upon decaying matter. Nature took away 

 its leaves and cJiloropJiyll and only left it sufficient branching- 

 extensions at the base to secure it in the soil. 



HEART-LEAFED TWAYBLADE 



Lisiera cordata. Orchid Family 



Root fleshy-fibrous. Stems: very slender. Leaves: sessile, cordate, 

 ovate, mucronate. Flowers: in racemes, minute pedicels bracted : sepals 

 and petals oblong-linear, lip narrow, the segments setaceous and ciliolate. 



A small orchid with two large leaves growing midway up 

 its slender stem, by which it may always be readily recognized. 

 The flowers are purplish-green, very tiny, and are set in a small 

 raceme at the top of the stalk. It grows in the cool woods. 



L. convallarioides, or Broad-lipped Twayblade, also has 

 the same two distinguishing stem-leaves, which, however, are 

 rounder than in the foregoing species, while its flowers are 



