growing ferns, springing from elastic beds of moss, here I first 

 found the slender, fragrant wands of this pretty orchid. 



LARGE ROUND-LEAVED ORCHIS. 



Habenaria orbiculata. Orchis Family. 



Scape. Stout, bracted, one to two feet high. Basal leaves. Two, verj 

 large, orbicular, spreading flat on the ground, shining above, silvery be- 

 neath. Flowers. Greenish-white, spreading in a loose raceme, with linear 

 and slightly wedge-shaped lips and curved, slender spurs about an inch 

 and a half long. 



The peculiar charm of this orchid lies in its great flat rounded 

 shining leaves, which spread themselves over the ground in an 

 opulent fashion that seems to accord with the spirit of the deep 

 pine woods where they are most at home. The tall scape with 

 its many greenish- white flowers reaches maturity in July or 

 August. 



SWEET PEPPERBUSH. WHITE ALDER. 



Clethra alnifolia. Heath Family. 



A shrub from three to ten feet high. Leaves. Alternate ; ovate ; sharply 

 toothed. Flowers. White; growing in clustered finger-like racemes. 

 Calyx. Of five sepals. Corolla. Of five oblong petals. Stamens. Ten; 

 protruding. Pistil. One ; three-cleft at apex. 



Nearly all our flowering shrubs are past their glory by mid- 

 summer, when the fragrant blossoms of the sweet pepperbush be- 

 gin to exhale their perfume from the cool thickets which line 

 the lanes along the New England coast. There is a certain luxu- 

 riance in the vegetation of this part of the country in August 

 which is generally lacking farther inland, where the fairer flow- 

 ers have passed away, and the country begins to show the effects 

 of the long days of heat and drought. The moisture of the air, 

 and the peculiar character of the soil near the sea, are responsi- 

 ble for the freshness and beauty of many of the late flowers which 

 we find in such a locality. 



Clethra is the ancient Greek name for the alder, which this 

 plant somewhat resembles in foliage. 



86 



