4 6 



THE ORCHIDS OF NEW ENGLAND. 



ing extracts — it must be noted that flowers in general are re- 

 ferred to. " A. W. Bennett had made a series of observations, 

 Among Lepidoptera (butterflies, moths, etc.), JO visits were made 

 to red or pink flowers, 5 to blue, 15 to yellow, 5 to white. Dip- 

 tera (two-winged insects), 9 to red or pink, 8 to yellow, 20 to 

 white. Hymenoptera (bees, wasps, etc.), 303 to red and pink, 126 

 to blue, 11 to yellow, 17 to white. Mr. R. N. Christy records in 

 detail the movements of 76 insects, chiefly bees, and thinks bees 

 decidedly confine their successive visits to the same species. 

 Butterflies generally wander aimlessly. He thinks insects are 

 not guided by color alone, and suggests that sense of smell may 

 be brought into play. Bees have poor sight for long distances ; 

 of 55 bumble-bees watched, 26 visited blue flowers ; of these, 12 

 were methodic, 9 irregularly so, and 5 not at all. 13 visited 

 white flowers ; 5 were methodic. 1 1 visited yellow flowers ; 5 

 were methodic. 28 went to red flowers ; 7 methodic, 9 nearly 

 so." 



If we can imagine the months as quarrelling over their floral 

 offspring, we may be sure that June bitterly disputes the claim 

 of May to Calypso borcalis. This beautiful little inhabitant of 

 cold bogs and cedar swamps is the only known Orchid that 

 reaches 68° north latitude, and while very abundant in Oregon 

 and the North-west, is so rare in New England that in New 

 Hampshire, as Prof. Flint writes me, " one may be thoroughly 

 acquainted with our flora and yet never have seen it." Fortu- 

 nately, the summer tourist arrives in the White Mountains too 

 late to find and exterminate the plant, and one can hardly 

 blame those who do know its stations for refusing to reveal 

 them. At Bangor, Maine, it sometimes blooms as early as May 

 3d, and is always in advance of the Showy Orchis. At Middle- 

 bury, its most southerly known station in Vermont, May 20th is 

 regarded as exceptionally early ; and finding it on the same date 

 near Charlotte, in the late spring of 1883, I attributed its 

 appearance to caprice, as it was several days ahead of the apple- 



