STUDIES OF PLANT LIFE 



month of June, when it may be seen beside the gay Painted 

 Cup (Castilleia coccinea), the Blue Lupine (L. perennis), 

 the larger White Trillium, and other lovely wild flowers, it 

 forms a charming contrast to their various colors and no less 

 varied forms. 



The stem of the larger Moccasin flower is thick and 

 leafy, each many-nerved leaf sheathing the flowers before 

 they open. The flowers are from one to three in number, 

 bent forward, drooping gracefully downwards. The golden 

 sac-like lip is elegantly striped and spotted with ruby red; 

 the twisted narrow petals and sepals, two in number of 

 each kind, are of a pale fawn color, sometimes veined and 

 lined with a deeper shade of brown. 



SHOWY ORCHIS Orchis spectabilis (L.). 



(PLATE VII.) 



" Full many a gem of purest ray serene 



The dark, unfathomed caves of ocean bear ; 

 Full many a flower is born to blush unseen, 

 And waste its sweetness on the desert air." 



Gray. 



Deep hidden in the damp recesses of the leafy woods, 

 many a rare and precious flower of the Orchis family 

 blooms, flourishes, and decays unseen by human eye, un- 

 sought by human hand, until some curious flower-loving 

 botanist plunges amid the rank, tangled vegetation and 

 brings its beauties to the light. One of these lovely natives 

 of our Canadian forests is known as Orchis spectabilis 

 (Beautiful Orchis, or Showy Orchis). This pretty plant is 

 not, indeed, of very rare occurrence; its locality is rich 

 maple and beechen woods in eastern Canada. The color 

 of the flower is white, shaded, and spotted with pink or 

 purplish lilac; the corolla is what is termed ringent or 



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