WILD FLOWERS OF THE CALIFORNIA ALPS. 351 



accumulation of raindrops ; and the insects ensnared are mainly 

 winged varieties, such as flies, bees, wasps, and beetles, though 

 ants, spiders, slugs, and other crawling creatures often share their 

 untimely fate. In one of these omnivorous vegetable traps the 

 writer once discovered a tuft of three straight pine needles, six 

 inches in length, though how 

 they ever worked their way, un- 

 bent, through the curved mouth, 

 will ever remain an unsolved 

 problem. 



Intermingled with the pitcher 

 plants and coarse grasses of the 

 swamps is often found a tall, 

 graceful orchid (Habenaria leu- 

 costachys), with spikes of small, 

 white flowers, distilling the fra- 

 grance of the tropics; and in 

 its company frequently grows 

 the California Cypripedium, or 

 " lady's slipper," which has leafy 

 stems about two feet in height 

 and from three to a dozen blos- 

 soms, with brownish, twisted pet- 

 als, and a white lip veined with 

 purple. 



The rose-tinted, drooping Ca- 

 lypso, and the Spiranihes, or 

 " ladies' tresses," are also lovers 

 of wet places, the latter bloom- 

 ing in the late summer months 

 and being easily recognizable by 

 the curious manner in which the 

 little, greenish- white flowers are 

 coiled or twisted around the 

 stem. 



Somewhat allied to the "la- 

 dies' tresses " is the " rattlesnake 



plantain" (Goody eara Menziesii), the leaves of which were used 

 by the Indians as sovereign cures for snake-bites. From the 

 center of the variegated, rosettelike foliage springs a pubescent 

 stalk, about a foot in height, bearing a spike of one-sided white 

 flowers, which bloom in the deep woods through July and 

 August. 



The epipactus (Epipactus gigantea) is found in the tangled 

 undergrowth along the banks of mountain streams, and has 

 slender, leafy stems and from three to ten brown and green blos- 



CALIFORNIA SNOW PLANT. 



