PINK 



TWIN-FLOWER. 



Linncca borealis. Honeysuckle Family. 



Stem. Slender, creeping and trailing. Leaves. Rounded, shining and 

 evergreen. Flowers. Growing in pairs, delicate pink, fragrant, nodding 

 on thread-like, upright flower-stalks.- Calyx. Five-toothed. Corolla. 

 Narrowly bell-shaped, five-lobed, hairy within. Stamens. Four, two shorter 

 than the others. Pistil. One. 



Whoever has seen 



beneath dim aisles, in odorous beds, 

 The slight Linnaea hang its twin-born heads * 



will not soon forget the exquisite carpeting made by its nodding 

 pink flowers and dark shining leaves ; or the delicious perfume 

 which actually filled the air and drew one's attention to the spot 

 from which it was exhaled, tempting one to exclaim with Richard 

 Jefferies, " Sweetest of all things is wild-flower air ! " That this 

 little plant should have been selected as " the monument of the 

 man of flowers" by the great Linnaeus himself, bears testimony 

 to his possession of that appreciation of the beautiful which is 

 supposed to be lacking in men of long scientific training. I be- 

 lieve that there is extant at least one contemporary portrait of 

 Linnaeus in which he wears the tiny flowers in his buttonhole. 

 The rosy twin-blossoms are borne on thread-like, forking flower- 

 stalks, and appear in June in the deep, cool, mossy woods of the 

 North. 



SHOWY ORCHIS. 



Orchis spectabilis. Orchis Family (p. 17). 



Stem. Four-angled, with leaf -like bracts, rising from fleshy, fibrous 

 roots. Leaves. Two, oblong, shining, three to six inches long. Flowers. 

 In a loose spike, purple-pink, the lower lip white. 



This flower not only charms us with its beauty when its 

 clusters begin to dot the rich May woods, but interests us as 

 being usually the first member of the Orchis family to appear 

 upon the scene ; although it is claimed in certain localities that 

 the beautiful Calypso always, and the Indian moccason occasion- 

 ally, precedes it. 



* Emerson. 

 176 



