70 Bo^-Trottin^ for OrcHids 



On the edge of the water among the ferns and brakes 

 I found the leaves of the Purple-Fringed Orchis {Habe- 

 naria psy codes), but no plants likely to bloom this 

 season. 



When I reached the mill, I placed my treasures in 

 the buggy, and started after that part of my load which 

 I had left around the hill. On my return, I gathered 

 some waxen, crimson cones of the beautiful tamarack 

 tree by the path. When I bade farewell to little Mer- 

 win and his mother, who lived in the mill-house, I 

 asked them to watch for the rose - purple orchids, — 

 Pogonias and L,imodorums, — which were now due any 

 day, east of the mill. The boy was very earnest and 

 observing, and I knew that I now had a comrade to 

 guard over the Bogs of Etchowog, 



Students from Williams College, and tourists from 

 near and afar seek these swamps of Pownal for bo- 

 tanical specimens, and Merwin had often been their 

 guide to the haunts of these rare treasures. He told 

 me that students from Williams had, the j-ear before, 

 gathered innumerable pink and purple flowers in these 

 marshes, as well as the beautiful bearded spikes of the 

 Buckbean. 



For a succession of years — during all of President 

 Carter's term at Williams College at least — it has been 

 the unique custom to bank the chancel of the Congre- 

 gational Church with the Showy Moccasin-Flowers 

 and Maiden-Hair Ferns, on Baccalaureate Sunday, — 

 which occurs usually about June twentieth. These 

 gorgeously colored orchids reach the height of their 



