GHOST FLOWER. PHANTOM ORCHIS (CephalanthSra ore- 

 gana, Reich, f.). Flowers very much as in Epipactis, but pure 

 white, in terminal spikes, a foot or two high, leaves reduced to 

 scales, and the whole plant, leaves and stems as well as the 

 blossoms, pure white, or nearly so. Blooming in summer in 

 mountain woods from Central California and the Yosemite 

 region northward to Oregon. A wraith-like plant when seen 

 against the dark background of the forest floor, well described 

 by the popular name. The flowers exhale a delicate odor that 

 suggests vanilla. 



This remarkable Orchid, first collected by the botanist 

 Xuttall in Oregon, is one of that curious sort of plants of 

 which the Heath family harbors several, that do no food man- 

 ufacturing for themselves, but live like fungi on the decaying 

 vegetation the natural garbage of the woods. This 

 accounts for the whiteness of all the parts, which is simply an 

 absence of chlorophyl, that essential agent by which other 

 plants convert into nutriment for themselves the inorganic 

 matter derived from earth and air. 



The plant is called by some botanists Cephalanthera Ans- 

 tina, Heller. 



