ACCORDING TO SEASON 



many of the open spaces where the woods have 

 been cut or burned away. Often with its com- 

 panions, the Clintonia, twisted stalk, and Maian- 

 themum, it leaves the more inland woods, and 

 ventures far down on shaded rocky points that 

 jut into the sea. 



It is not easy to say whether the pink lady's- 

 slipper or Indian moccasin belongs more properly 

 to May or to June. According to the latitude and 

 Pink lady's- the year it may be found in flower at any time 

 s l ^ er from the middle of the earlier to the end of the 

 later month. Thoreau writes, " The first of June, 

 when the lady's-slipper and the wild pink have 

 come out in sunny places on the hill-side, then 

 the summer is begun according to the clock of 

 the seasons." But it seems to me to range itself 

 more naturally with the spring than with the 

 summer flowers, and in like manner to belong to 

 the northern woods. The natural background 

 for its striped, pinkish pouch, swinging balloon- 

 like from the tall stem which is guarded by two 

 broad, curving leaves, is the leafy red-brown car- 

 pet beneath the pines, hemlocks, and spruces. 

 Different and almost discordant as the purple 

 pink of the flower might seem in combination 

 with the rich, reddish hue of the forest floor, yet 

 in reality the two shades not only harmonize, but 

 blend so perfectly that the flower, large and con- 



66 



