i6o 



STARLIGHT AND SUNSHINE. 



boutounrere a green hood-like, tubular affair, somewhat suggest- 

 ing a Jack-in-the-pulpit or skunk -cabbage flower, about six inch- 

 es long, with a tapering green spadix projecting fully five inches 

 above the summit of the pointed hood, making in all a floral dis- 

 play of nearly a foot in length. He looked like a naturalized 

 brave from the tropics, and, indeed, favors 

 certain of his Brazilian kindred. 



Of course my botanical brethren will at 

 once recognize the eccentric blossom, the 

 Dragon Arum (Arum dracontium\ though 

 I imagine that few of them have ever 

 chanced upon a finer individual than this, 

 my first, though not my last specimen, for 



I subsequently discovered more. 

 ^ One of our most common orchids, 

 though hardest to find because of its 

 obscurity, is the O lacera, or ragged 

 orchis, its inconspicuous petals being cut 

 into a coarse fringe. Various specimens 

 met me on all sides among the ferns. For 

 years I had vainly sought for the rare po- 

 gonia (Pogonia verticillatd] in my walks 

 not for its beauty, but for its very retiring 

 qualities ; for one does not like to feel that 

 perhaps he has every day slighted a friend 

 whose only fault is her modesty. It is no 

 greater compliment to the cardinal -flower 

 in that it is hailed from afar. Remember- 

 ing that a certain guardian of the secrets 

 of these woods had whispered to me that 

 the pogonia was to be found here, near a 

 certain turn in an old wood road, I sought 



the spot ; and there, in an isolated nook among a thick growth 

 of medeola, or Indian -cucumber, ginseng, Solomon's -seal, wood 

 betony, pale Indian -pipes, and other wood growths, I came upon 

 the object of my search growing in profusion, treading them 



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