Ram's-Heads in WitcH Hollo-w 1 1 1 



of the names were undoubtedly derived. There was 

 also another small purple species of Royall Satyrion, 

 with a perfume like musk. The roots were like the 

 larger purple Royall Satyrion. 



The roots of Royall Satyrion were used as remedies 

 against many diseases. "If an inch or as much as 

 one's thombe of this roote be pound and ministered in 

 wine, it is good for many diseases," writes Dr. Nicho- 

 las Nicols, according to Dodoens and Lyte in 1578.' 



These orchises have figured in literature from time 

 unknown, and although shy in New England, seeking 

 the haunts of moose and bear, they delight still to 

 grow in hearing of the cathedral bells in old England, 

 where they are the common flowers of meadow and 

 borders of corn-fields. 



The proverb, that all things come round to him 

 who waits, may for the orchis-hunter be paraphrased 

 rather, " All things come round to him who tramps." 

 I was destined sooner or later, by lonely lake or moun- 

 tain bog, to find the Purple- Fringed Orchis for which 

 I had so long searched. Eater in the season, on July 

 8th, I visited Notch Brook, North Adams, a stream 

 flowing down through the northern Notch Valley. 

 Wandering past the beautiful Cascade, I slowly ex- 

 plored the wooded vales among the Ragged Mountains. 

 The afternoon was sultry; the sun pouring down upon 

 the parched sod of the rocky pasture-land had shriv- 

 elled up the grasses, and now the bushes themselves 



' Lyte's translation of Dodoens' History of Plants, pp. 161- 

 162 (I ed., 1578). 



