STUDIES OF PLANT LIFE 



well as for the eccentric forms which arise from the 

 peculiar arrangement of their floral organs. 



The one above named is worthy of attention. Our quaint 

 old herbalists would have called it the Holy Dove, or some 

 such name, from the curious resemblance that the petals 

 and sepals take to the body and extended white wings of a 

 hovering dove, the lower lobed petal taking the semblance 

 of the tail and wings, the upper ones meeting over the 

 anther-cells, which might be likened to the two eyes of the 

 bird, and the arched hooded appendage above to the head. 



The scape of this pretty Orchis is furnished with one 

 handsome round or shield-shaped leaf, of shining bright 

 green, and a bracted spike of white flowers, spotted with 

 delicate pink, as also is the throat of the arched petal that 

 partly covers the anthers and stigmatic disc. 



Our beautiful Orchids, with many other rare bog plants, 

 repay the difficulties of obtaining them in their native 

 haunts, such as cedar swamps, cranberry marshes, poplar 

 swales, and peat bogs, where, however zealous, our lady 

 botanists may not venture without risk. 



These rare plants, growing in lonely isolated places, are 

 little known and but seldom met with, unless, as I have 

 said, by the enthusiastic botanist who is not afraid to seek 

 for such floral treasures, however difficult they may be to 

 obtain. A curious and handsome species is the Striped 

 Orchis or Coral-root (Corallorhiza striata, Lindl.). This 

 plant is leafless, silvery-sheathing scales taking the place of 

 leaves; the roots are branched and knobby, like some kinds 

 of coral; the scapes, many flowered, grow up in clusters 

 from twelve to eighteen inches high; the flowers are pale 

 fawn, striped and dotted with crimson or purple such was a 

 plant that I found at the root of a big hemlock tree near 

 the forest road where I often walked many years ago. 



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