BLUE AND PURPLt 



PURPLE FRINGED ORCHISES. 



Orchis Family. 

 Habenaria fimbriata. 



Leaves. Oval or oblong ; the upper, few, passing into lance-shaped 

 bracts. Flowers. Purple ; rather large ; with a fan-shaped, three-parted 

 lip, its divisions fringed ; with a long curving spur ; growing in a spike. 



Habenaria psy codes. 



Leaves. Oblong or lance-shaped ; the upper passing into linear bracts. 

 Flowers. Purple; fragrant; resembling those of H. fimbriata, but much 

 smaller, with a less fringed lip ; growing in a spike. 



We should search the wet meadows in early June if we wish 

 surely to be in time for the larger of the purple fringed orchises, 

 for H. fimbriata somewhat antedates H. psycodes, which is the 

 commoner species of the two and appears in July. Under date 

 of June pth, Thoreau writes: " Find the great fringed-orchis out 

 apparently two or three days, two are almost fully out, two or 

 three only budded ; a large spike of peculiarly delicate, pale-pur- 

 ple flowers growing in the luxuriant and shady swamp, amid hel- 

 lebores, ferns, golden senecio, etc. . . . The village belle 

 never sees this more delicate belle of the swamp. ... A 

 beauty reared in the shade of a convent, who has never strayed 

 beyond the convent-bell. Only the skunk or owl, or other in- 

 habitant of the swamp, beholds it." 



SELF-HEAL. HEAL-ALL. 



Brunella vulgaris. Mint Family. 



Stems. Low. Leaves. Opposite ; oblong. Flowers. Bluish-purple; 

 in a spike or head. Calyx. Two-lipped ; upper lip with three short teeth, 

 the lower two-cleft. Corolla. Two-lipped; the upper lip arched, entire, 

 the lower spreading, three-cleft. Stamens. Four. Pistil. One, two- 

 lobed at the apex. 



Throughout the length and breadth of the country, from 

 June until September, the short, close spikes of the self-heal can 



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