SOME HUMBLE ORCHIDS 135 



strained attitudes to keep finery untumbled until 

 the moment for departure comes. 



In common with many of the tribe the Showy 

 Orchis has, on opening, a delicate earthy fragrance 

 that turns to a decided muskiness after the fer- 

 tilization of the flower; a perfume inseparable from 

 leaf -mold blossoms to whatever tribe they may be- 

 long. One quality it lacks, and that is gracefulness. 

 If its flower -stem grew longer before the buds 

 opened, so as to raise them well above the leaves 

 and give the wind a chance to sway and bend 

 them, the primness would vanish, and the Showy 

 Orchis be captivating indeed. At present it reminds 

 one of a lovely woman with so short a neck that 

 she cannot turn her head ! 



Another Moccasin Flower, a taller cousin of the 

 Pink, has sent a few venturesome pioneers over the 

 Hemlock ridge to test the climate and soil on the 

 coast side of it, for this family needs bracing air 

 and usually keeps well away from salt water in- 

 fluences. 



The Yellow Moccasin, or, as the French call it, 

 Le Soulier de Notre Dame, comes in flower as the 

 Showy Orchis passes, and precedes the exquisitely 

 painted Showy Moccasin Flowers, whose splendid 

 rose -and -white blossoms, often two on a stem, 



