WHITE 



the year. The plant has been reputed an infallible cure for 

 hydrophobia and snake-bites. It is said that the Indians had 

 such faith in its remedial virtues that they would allow a snake 

 to drive its fangs into them for a small sum, if they had these 

 leaves on hand to apply to the wound. 



WHITE FRINGED ORCHIS. 



Habenaria blephariglottis. Orchis Family. 



About one foot high. Leaves. Oblong or lance-shaped ; the upper 

 passing into pointed bracts. Flowers. Pure white ; with a slender spur 

 and fringed lip ; growing in an oblong spike. 



This seems to me the most exquisite of our native orchids. 

 The fringed lips give the snowy, delicate flowers a feathery ap- 

 pearance as they gleam from the shadowy woods of midsummer, 

 or from the peat-bogs where they thrive best ; or perhaps they 

 spire upward from among the dark green rushes which border 

 some lonely mountain lake. Like the yellow fringed orchis, 

 which they greatly resemble in general structure, they may 

 be sought for in vain many seasons and then will be discov- 

 ered, one midsummer day, lavishing their spotless loveliness 

 upon some unsuspected marsh which has chanced to escape our 

 vigilance. 



NORTHERN WHITE ORCHIS. 



Habenaria dilatata. Orchis Family. 



Stem. Slender; leafy. Leaves. Long and narrow. Flowers. Small; 

 white ; with an incurved spur ; growing in a slender spike. 



The mention of the northern white orchis recalls to my mind 

 one midsummer morning in a New England swamp, where 

 tangles of sheep laurel barred the way, branches of dogwood 

 and azalea snapped into my eyes, while patches of fragrant ad- 

 ders' mouths and fragile Calopogons just escaped being trodden 

 underfoot, and exacted, by way of compensation, a breathless 

 but delighted homage at their lovely shrines. Among tall- 



84 



