White and Greenish 



front, i in. long or over. Stem: Stout, leafy, i to 2 ft. high. 



Leaves : 3 to 8 in. long, downy, elliptic, pointed, many ribbed. 

 Preferred Habitat — Peat-bogs; rich, low, wet woods. 

 Flowering Season — June — September. 

 Distribution — Nova Scotia to Georgia, westward to the Mississippi. 



Chiefly North. 



Quite different from the showy orchis, with its several-flow- 

 ered spike of violet and pink blossoms, is this far more chaste and 

 usually solitary showy lady's slipper which Dr. Gray has called 

 " the most beautiful of the genus." Because the plants hide away 

 in inaccessible swampy places, where only the most zealous, rub- 

 ber-booted, swear-proof flower lover cares to penetrate, they have 

 a reputation for rarity at which one who knows a dozen places 

 to .find colonies of the stately exquisites during a morning's walk 

 in July, must smile with superiority. Wine appears to overflow 

 the large white cup and trickle down its sides. 



Large Round-leaved or Greater Green Orchis 



(Habenaria orbiculata) Orchid family 



Flowers— Greenish white, in a looselv set spike; the upper sepal 

 short, rounded; side ones spreading; petals smaller, arching; 

 the lip long, narrow, drooping, white, prolonged into a spur 

 often 1 Y-2 in. long, curved and enlarged at base ; anther sacs 

 prominent, converging. Scape : 1 to 2 ft. high. Leaves : 2, 

 spreading flat on ground, glossy above, silvery underneath, 

 parallel-veined, slightly longer than wide, very large, from 4 

 to 7 in. across. 



Preferred Habitat— Rich, moist woods in mountainous regions, 

 especially near evergreens. 



Flowering Season — July — August. 



Distribution — From British Columbia to the Atlantic; eastern half 

 of the United States southward to the Carolinas. 



Wonderfully interesting structure and the comparative rarity 

 of this orchid, rather than superficial beauty, are responsible for the 

 thrill of pleasure one experiences at the sight of the spike of unpre- 

 tentious flowers. Two great leaves, sometimes as large as dinner 

 plates, attract the eye to where they glisten on the ground. The 

 spur of the blossom, the nectarv, "implies a welcome to a tongue 

 two inches long, and will reward none other," says William Ham- 

 ilton Gibson. "This clearly shuts out the bees, butterflies, and 

 smaller moths. What insect, then, is here implied ? The sphinx 

 moth, one of the lesser of the group. A larger individual might 

 sip the nectar, it is true, but its longer tongue would reach the 

 base of the tube without effecting the slightest contact with the 



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