SOME HUMBLE ORCHIDS 145 



"Do you see any Orchids?" she asked, after a 

 moment or two. "I J m sure I don't. Everything 

 is big and common and all huddled together in an 

 overgrown mess. I like the woods and runaway 

 garden things much better. If you find one plant 

 at a time you can keep your presence of mind. 

 To make anything of this jumble of hundreds of 

 everything is like trying to play an unfamiliar page 

 from Tristan on a strange piano with a new maestro 

 standing behind taking your musical measure." 



I laughed, and merely pointed to a clump of 

 Cinnamon Ferns a dozen feet before us. 



"Oh!" exclaimed Flower Hat, dropping the 

 Parsnip leaf and starting forward. 



About these Ferns the Calopogons had gath- 

 ered in a sort of bow-knot, and then wandered off 

 in an erratic course across the open, embroidering 

 the green with cross stitches and fillets of a color 

 neither purple nor pink. 



Flower Hat gathered a handful of the flower - 

 spikes there were so many that any moderate 

 picking would not destroy the effectiveness of the 

 picture and suggested that we should go over into 

 the shade to look at them. 



"Dainty from tip to toe!" she exclaimed, as 

 she held up a flower -stalk with many triangular 



J 



