152 SOME HUMBLE ORCHIDS 



Of half a dozen species, two grow plentifully 

 hereabout, one in the drier grass, one in the deep 

 bog meadows, loved by Pogonia. The first, the 

 Slender Ladies' Tresses, a fragile little plant with 

 two plantain -like ground leaves, and a slender stalk 

 a foot or more in length, around the top of which 

 the flowers appear to be wound, like garlands about 

 a May -pole, is abundant in August and September. 

 The other, called Nodding Ladies' Tresses, stronger 

 of growth and more fragrant, is the farewell Orchid 

 of the year, having Asters for its companions; and 

 when its moist haunts are sheltered, it often lingers 

 into late October, in company with Fringed Gen- 

 tians, and the fresh growth of Meadow Ferns 

 that springs up after the Summer heat. 



There is a boulder -scattered ridge that rises 

 from Time o' Year's river to the next range of 

 hills. Between these boulders, time out of mind, 

 great trees grew that have fallen into decay and 

 been replaced by another and yet another gener- 

 ation, so that all between the rocks is in dark 

 shadow, and deep with wood -mold. The granite 

 fragments are cloaked with Mosses, Polypodies, 

 and Liverworts, while the rarer Spleen worts cling 

 to where the dripping rocks interrupt a spring's 

 course, and every dead stump and fallen bough 



