78 THE ORCHID FAMILY. 



H, Idcera, ragged orchid {Plate XXIV), grows at times as high as two 

 feet. It is a slender plant with lanceolate, firm-looking leaves and a spike 

 of loosely arranged, greenish yellow flowers. They have a ragged, unkempt 

 looking lip divided into three narrow segments, the fringe of each being long 

 and thread-like. The other petals are entire and linear, while the spur is 

 dilated and curved. At their apices the broad sepals are quite blunt. The 

 larger of the bracts which subtend the flowers measure about an inch long 

 and when young are of a vivid, intense green. 



H. cristata^ crested yellow orchid, which is found in bogs and swamps 

 from Louisiana and Florida to New Jersey, is also a tall and slender species. 

 Its oblong spike is from two to four inches long and bears many small 

 orange coloured flowers, which, were it not for the brilliancy of their colour, 

 would be quite overshadowed by their long, lanceolate and very green bracts. 

 All about the lip is bordered with a delicate, fine fringe which occurs slightly 

 on the other petals, or they are jagged at their summits. The lower leaves 

 are linear-lanceolate, seven or at most eight inches long, while the upper 

 ones are small and similar to the bracts. 



H. Michauxiixs, perhaps, the most eccentric appearing member of the 

 genus, a circumstance brought about by the phenomenal length of the spur, 

 it being often quite two inches long. Indeed these strange little white 

 flowers have a look as though they might fly in the air, as though like kites 

 they were provided with tails. The lip near its base is parted into three seg- 

 ments, the lateral divisions being longer and narrower than the middle one. 

 The lower lobes of the petals are also linear or thread-like, and twice as long 

 as the upper ones while the ovate sepals are pointed at their apices. In Au- 

 gust the plant is found in blow through the wet pine lands of Florida and it 

 extends as far northward as North Carolina. Late in the autumn its oblong, 

 or ovate leaves turn to varied shades of red and orange. 



H. nivea^ southern small white orchid, grows also in moist pine barrens. 

 It is a dainty plant, tall and slender with linear leaves and an oblong close 

 spike of white flowers, the sepals of which are oblong and somewhat en- 

 larged at their bases, while the spurs are very slender and as long or longer 

 than the ovary. 



H. clavellata, small green wood orchid, bears flowers which are quite as 

 often a pure waxy white as they are green. The plant is seldom found 

 much over fifteen inches high and bears usually but one large stem leaf 

 which is oblanceolate. The smaller ones which appear above this leaf are 

 similar to bracts. The sepals and petals of the flowers are ovate and their 

 arrangement is such that they have an attractive wing-like appearance. At 

 its apex the lip is inconspicuously three-toothed and the projected spur is in- 

 curved and club shaped. On the high mountains of the Appalachian system 



