134 SOME HUMBLE ORCHIDS 



England Orchids for which true landscape value 

 may be claimed. 



Hereabout it is the earliest comer of the tribe. 

 Oh, no! I am forgetting that there is one of 

 another household still earlier, the Showy Orchis, 

 which pierces the mold with its lily-like leaves in 

 late April or early May, in company with Wake 

 Robin, Bloodroot, Anemones, and Yellow Violets. 

 Even Time o' Year does not know its haunt in 

 the deep woods beyond Lonetown on the Ridgefield 

 road, where I cherish a few plants of it, so rare in 

 this region, by letting them alone in the hope that 

 they will increase and that the seed may be borne 

 to neighboring woods. 



This Orchis is most precise in its equipments, 

 and when in its first perfection of bloom, it seems 

 like an artificial plant of wax from its broad leaves, 

 sometimes six inches in length and damp to the 

 touch, to the tip of its spike of half a dozen 

 spurred, shaded purple flowers with broad white 

 or violet lips. Where it is common, it often 

 gathers in crowds like the Moccasin Flowers or 

 Fringed Orchises, but with the few rare plants 

 of my discovering, each kept its distance from 

 the other, as prim as children made ready for a 

 party, who sit perched on chair edges in con- 



