46 Bog-Trotting for Orchids 



found. They wondered if I had been near the jungle, 

 as they saw Major, my hound, during the afternoon. 

 I admired their blossoms, now drooping and wilted and 

 sadly bruised, but I never told them just where I had 

 been, nor what I had missed. I had not the actual 

 courage to scold them, since I had set the example for 

 them, but although I find many flowers, I gather at 

 random for mere pleasure very few. Indeed, there is 

 no pleasure in making desolate these choice and hidden 

 retreats of Nature. 



There are laws protecting the deer in the Green 

 Mountains and the brook trout in their spawning 

 season, but as yet there is no legal or moral protection 

 to shield the flowering and fruiting season of rare 

 flowers, especially orchids, so scarce in northern New 

 England. Some of our orchids are already so rare, 

 that in localities where, only a few years ago, I found 

 them abundant, to-day hardly a trace of them remains. 

 They have suffered from school children and commerce 

 alike. People seek them selfishly for pleasure and 

 study, while the drug trade demands many roots, and 

 places fair value upon them as an inducement to col- 

 lectors. These roots are used for infusions, tinctures, 

 and ointments, — a primitive Indian custom and one 

 which, if continued on the present scale, must in time 

 necessarily cease, through extinction of the rarer and 

 most showy species of our native orchids. 



The country folk know the Lady's Slippers of genus 

 Cypripedhim as the Nervine Family, valuing them as 

 a nerve tonic. I have met a man who makes a busi- 



