126 



THE ORCHIDS OF NEW ENGLAND. 



I do not often find a Rattle-snake Plantain in bloom ; and an 

 experienced botanist, whose travels in our State cover a wide 

 and varied tract of country, assures me (1883) that he has not 

 come across a flowering specimen for two years, though there 

 is hardly a patch of woods of any size that does not contain 

 both species. 



I happened to be in a little grove of hemlocks two years 

 ago, in September, and noticing that these Orchids were quite 

 abundant, counted them roughly. Out of 200 plants of G. 

 pubcsccns, young and old, only 12 had flowered, and 20 plants 

 of G. repens furnished but 2 spikes. A more careful estimate in 



the following year resulted in 

 giving 102 flower spikes from 

 572 plants, young and old, of 

 G. pubcsccns. One patch, that 

 lay like a mat on the ground, 

 had 226 plants in it and but 

 15 spikes. G. rcpcns in this 

 place is very scattered, and I 

 saw but one plant and this 

 had not flowered. I have 

 noticed that the Goodyeras 

 always mature their ovaries. In Scotland, G. rcpcns is fertil- 

 ized by humble-bees, and I suppose they perform the same 

 offices in this country ; but it would seem as if they must 

 drain the little white syrup pitchers in a very bungling way. 

 " That arrangements for propagation," says Sachs, " are espe- 

 cially promoted by the upright growth of the stem is evident 

 from the fact that in the large number of plants which develop 

 their leaves in a rosette close to the ground, or on a stem that 

 creeps along it, a rapidly ascending flower-stem is formed only 

 just before the unfolding of the flower-buds. [This is] strik- 

 ingly the case in the case of parasites (Neottia) which vegetate 

 below and blossom above." 



Fig. 39.— Flower of Downy Goodyera. 



Lip, the other parts removed. 



Root of same. 



