84 THE ORCHID FAMILY. 



latter is a bract. Both are sessile and oblong, or lanceolate. The flower 

 is but slightly inclined ; of a pale rosy colour and faintly fragrant as are red 

 raspberries. Its spatulate lip which is fringed about and gaily crested with 

 yellow is longer than the other petals and sepals. They are oval, and, as 

 with the following species, all about the same size. The plant spreads itself 

 by runners. In the latter part of May after a long and disappointing hunt 

 through wet meadows and swamps where the rose pogonia usually gro\\-s, I 

 found a small one that had strayed to the roadside's edge and there grew 

 contentedly in dry, hard packed soil, 



P. tria7ithdj)Jiora, nodding pogonia, {Plate XXVIII), is a little beauty, 

 which although indigenous from Florida to Rhode Island and westward is 

 still a rare find through the woods of midsummer. In general it bears three 

 small, slightly tinted white flowers which are erect when young, but soon 

 nod from their slender, axillary peduncles. So quaint and dainty are these 

 blossoms that they have tempted the usually unresponsive mountaineers 

 through the Alleghanies to indulge in a bit of sentiment. They call the 

 plant, " the three birds." In construction the flowers show the traits of the 

 pogonias, the clawed lip, however, is not crested, although rather rough on its 

 face. It is slightly three-Iobed. The leaves are small, alternate and broadly 

 ovate. On taking up one of these plants the tuberous root appeared to me 

 as a revelation. Like a small peanut it was in shape, perfectly white and 

 almost transparent. 



NODDING LADY'S TRESSES. {Plate XXIX.) 

 Gyrostdchys cerfiua. 



FAMILY COLOUR ODOUR RANGE TIME OF BLOOM 



Orchid. IVkite^or yelloiuish. Fragrant. Florida and Louisiana August-October. 



northward and westward. 



Flowers : slightly nodding, and growing closely in a spiral way on an untwisted 

 stem. Bracts: lanceolate ; arched: pointed and pubescent. Lateral sepals : slen- 

 der and somewhat ])ubescent on the outside; the upper one, arched. L//> : oblong; 

 rounded and crisped at the aj^ex. Leaves: those near the base, linear or linear 

 oblong, bluntly pointed at the apex and tapering at the base into a long sheathing 

 ]Detiole. Occurring on the stem also are several small, sliarj^Iy-pointed bracts. 

 Stem : usually eight to ten inches high, or occasionally as tall as two feet; pubes- 

 cent especially near the summit. 



There is a charm about the tall, sprightly form of this orchid as in its wild 

 state it appears suddenly and seems to form a part of the woodland scene 

 or moist strip of country through which it grows. Happily it is one of the 

 commonest of the genus, and lingers in bloom until late in the season, being 

 in fact the last of the orchids to be sought for. In the well known gorge^ 

 between Hampton and Roan Mountain station, Tennessee, I w^as delighted 

 to find a notable specimen, It grew in a mossy, damp place within the 



