AMONG THE WILD FLOWERS 3 



confounded in the opinion of mankind. It is a 

 pretty and decorative sort of plant, with, when per- 

 fect, two stages or platforms of leaves, one above 

 the other. You see a whorl of five or six leaves, a 

 foot or more from the ground, which seems to bear 

 a standard with another whorl of three leaves at the 

 top of it. The small, colorless, recurved flowers 

 shoot out from above this top whorl. The whole 

 expression of the plant is singularly slender and 

 graceful. Sometimes, probably the first year, it 

 only attains to the first circle of leaves. This is 

 the platform from which it will rear its flower col- 

 umn the next year. Its white, tuberous root is 

 crisp and tender, and leaves in the mouth distinctly 

 the taste of cucumber. Whether or not the In- 

 dians used it as a relish as we do the cucumber, I 

 do not know. 



Still another pretty flower that perpetuates the 

 name of a Grecian nymph, a flower that was a new 

 find to me a few summers ago, is the arethusa. 

 Arethusa was one of the nymphs who attended 

 Diana, and was by that goddess turned into a foun- 

 tain, that she might escape the god of the river, 

 Alpheus, who became desperately in love with her 

 on seeing her at her bath. Our Arethusa is one of 

 the prettiest of the orchids, and has been pursued 

 through many a marsh and quaking bog by her 

 lovers. She is a bright pink- purple flower an inch 

 or more long, with the odor of sweet violets. The 

 sepals and petals rise up and arch over the column, 

 which we may call the heart of the flower, as if 



