SOME HUMBLE ORCHIDS 133 



among all our native Orchids this Pink Moccasin 

 Flower is the most hopeless to transplant, as away 

 from its haunt in a year or two at most it pines 

 away, appearing to find some unknown quality in 

 its natal soil with which it cannot be supplied. 



Within the wood edge pairs of leaves and single 

 flowers soon became more frequent, but these sank 

 to insignificance when I came in sight of the 

 first tree bowl. There the Moccasins were hold- 

 ing a woodland flower market of their own, peep- 

 ing over each other's shoulders, crowding the edges 

 of the leafy hollow, straying down the sides and 

 clustering in the bottom, facing this way and 

 that, wearing every shade of color from flesh -white 

 through pink to a deep, veiny purple, and all nod- 

 ding and swaying as they were continually jostled 

 by the eager bees who came to make their pur- 

 chases of pollen and nectar. 



Notwithstanding the great attraction that a Pink 

 Moccasin Flower in the hand offers us from its 

 oddity, it is certainly much more beautiful in its 

 haunts. There the paler flowers counteract the 

 somewhat veiny quality of the deeper, and the soft 

 browns of the Hemlock -strewn ground act as a 

 setting to the whole, together with the surrounding 

 air of mystery making it one of the half dozen New 



