ACCORDING TO SEASON 



its family in that the lip, with its beard of white, 

 yellow, and purple hairs, stands on the upper 



Peculiarity instead of on the lower side of the flower. This 



orchid peculiarity it owes to the fact that its ovary has 

 not the twist habitual to orchids. Despite the 

 difference of position in that part of the flower 

 which is specially designed to attract insects, the 

 grass-pink is as well fitted as its sisters to secure 

 cross-fertilization, as a careful study of its inter- 

 nal structure will prove. 



Here the meadow becomes a bog. High rub- 

 ber boots are necessary as a protection from the 

 water and black mud in which they sink so deep 



In the hog that it is a question as to how long they will be 

 of any service. The grasses grow tall and rank 

 and gleaming. Pools of black water alternate 

 with little islands where the marsh shield-fern 

 holds itself well out of the wet, its segments 

 growing high up on the stem as though trying to 



Marsh keep dry under discouraging conditions. If you 

 pick one of its delicate fronds (if you happen to 

 be an observer of ferns) you are struck with its 

 resemblance to another fern which abounds along 

 the road-side, but which differs from this in that 

 its lowest segments grow gradually very much 

 shorter, so that its frond really tapers both ways 

 from the middle, while here the tapering at the 

 lower part of the frond is very slight. Then, too, 



104 



shield-fern 



