142 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1892. 



bloodroot spreads a white carpet with its blossoms. Here also 

 once grew another rare species, the moth-mullein. 



In the early spring days we are gratified if each new walk 

 adds a single flower to our list ; after a time a half-dozen new 

 varieties may be found in an afternoon and soon we cannot keep 

 count of them, so fast do they appear. By the beginning of 

 June one might gather fifty species in a day. Then follows a 

 short lapse to be succeeded by the distinctively summer flowers, 

 like the wild rose, the orchids and the white azalea. Most 

 spring flowers are delicate in aroma, color, and structure. 

 They have but little wood in them and soon wither when cut ; 

 those of summer are more robust, with more pronounced tones 

 of yellow and red, suggestive of the heat and light of the ad- 

 vancing season. 



The orchids are the aristocracy of our flora, and to plant 

 lovers they have a peculiar fascination. This order is repre- 

 sented in our vicinity by about thirty species, all of which are 

 curious and several are beautiful. There is at least one locality 

 in Worcester where O. spectabilis has been common ; in the 

 Chandler St. woods grow at least four species of habenaria, 

 a goodyera, two spiranthes and a cypripedium ; while Peat 

 Meadow is overrun by Pogonia ophioglossoides during the 

 month of June, and curiously enough, among the thousands 

 that grew there last year, there was found a single calopogon. 

 Why is it that season after season we may find in a certain 

 spot a single arethusa or caulophyllnm or pcttymovrel ; never 

 more, but always the "just one." Many of the orchids would 

 grace the garden of a connoisseur, but unfortunately, the con- 

 ditions under which they thrive can only with much difliculty 

 be provided, so that attempts at cultivating them are usually 

 followed by failure. I have often wondered what results would 

 come from crossing some of onr native cjpripedinms with intro- 

 duced species, for greenhouse culture. 



Of roses, we have three species, any of which is worthy of 

 a place in our border ; and tiie sweet-brier, I believe, may 

 well be used as a stock for grafts of Hybrid Perpetuals, etc. 

 Closely related to the rose, and almost a rose in reality, is 

 the flowering raspberry, rare here abouts, but common enough 



