124 



THE ORCHIDS OF NEW ENGLAND. 



The Downy Goody era, G. pnbescens, Barton's Veined-leaved 

 Neottia, with its popular names of Adder's Violet and Scrofula 

 Weed, is our best known and most common species, and its 

 blue-green velvety leaves may be seen in hanging-baskets at 

 any florist's. Josselyn, New England's Rarities, 1672, sup- 

 poses it to be a Pyrola, and says of the leaves, "the Ground 

 whereof is a sap Green embroydered (as it were) with many 

 pale yellow Ribs." Dewey speaks of the " elegant appear- 

 ance " presented by this plant, and of its great reputation. 

 among herb and Indian doctors, though in the only case in 

 which he saw it applied, " no results followed." Pursh says it 

 has a wide-spread reputation as an infallible cure for hydro- 

 phobia, and the American Herbal, published at Walpole, N. H., 

 in 1 801, by Sam. Stearns, LL.D. (who gives as a prescription 

 for dyspepsia, a mixture of ants' eggs and buttermilk), men- 

 tions the Rattle-snake Plantain as follows: "Country people 

 use a decoction of the leaves for skin diseases, and Captain 

 Carver says the Indians are so convinced of its power as an 

 antidote that they allow a snake to drive its fangs into them, 

 then chew the leaves and apply them to the wound." 



The Creeping Goodyera, G. rcpens, considered by many ta 

 be a variety of the former, and not, as Darwin and Gray both 

 maintain, a distinct species, rarely, if ever, attains to the height 

 of a foot. Its leaves are more pointed than those of the other, 

 more openly veined, and yellow-green in color ; the flowers are 

 not crowded on the spike, but fewer and arranged in a row ; 

 but intermediate forms are not uncommon. The difference in 

 the color of the leaves is sufficiently marked to be noticed by 

 one passing quickly through the place where both species grow. 

 I once found a very beautiful group of G. pnbcsccns : the leaves 

 were a dull blue with scarcely a tinge of green, and instead 

 of the usual net-work of veins, there was a silvery frost-work 

 over them. Goodyera Menziesii, a. species added to our New 

 England Flora within a few years by the intrepid explorations 



