NATIVE WILD FLOWEES 



gaping, the upper petals and sepals arching over the waved 

 lower petal. The scape is smooth and fleshy, terminating in 

 a loosely-flowered and many-bracted spike; the bracts are 

 dark-green, pointed, and leaf-like; the root a bundle of 

 round white fibres; the leaves, two in number, are large, 

 blunt, oblong, shining, smooth, and oily, from three to five 

 inches long, one larger and more pointed than the other. 

 The flowering time of the species is May and June. The 

 exquisite cellular tissues of many of our flowers of this 

 order delight the eye and give an appearance of great 

 delicacy and grace to the blossoms. In this charming 

 species the contrast between the lilac purple color of the 

 arching petals and sepals and the almost pellucid lower lip, 

 or somewhat broadly-lobed under petal, is very charming. 

 The large shining leaves lie close to the ground when the 

 plant is in flower. Transplanted to gardens the Showy 

 Orchis rarely survives the second season of removal from 

 the forest shade. It will not grow freely exposed to cold 

 wind or glaring sunlight. It loves moist heat; the con- 

 servatory would probably suit it, and it would be worth a 

 trial there, or in the grove or wilderness, or at the root of 

 a large tree near water. 



WILD GARLIC WILD LEEK Allium tricoccum (Ait.). 



As soon as the warm rays of early spring sunbeams have 

 melted the snow in the woods we see the bright closely- 

 folded and pointed leaves of the Wild Garlic, or Wild 

 Leek, as it is commonly called, piercing through the carpet 

 of dead leaves that thickly covers over the rich black 

 mould, the refuse of many years of former decayed foliage. 

 The cattle, that have been for many months deprived of 

 green food, eagerly avail themselves of the first appearance 



4 49 



