White and Greenisn 



pollen, which is, of course, the desideratum." How the moth, in 

 sipping the nectar, thrusts his head against the sticky buttons to 

 which the pollen masses are attached, and, in trying to release 

 himself, loosens them ; how he flies off with these little clubs 

 sticking to his eyes; how they automatically adjust themselves to 

 the attitude where they will come in contact with the stigma of 

 the next flower visited, and so cross-fertilize it, has been told in 

 the account of the great purple-fringed orchis of similar construc- 

 tion. To page 12 the interested reader is, therefore, referred; or, 

 better still, to the luminous description by Dr. Asa Gray. 



White-fringed Orchis 



(Habenaria blephariglottis) Orchid family 



Flowers Pure white, fragrant, borne on a spike from 3 to 6 in. 

 long. Spur long, slender ; oval sepals ; smaller petals 

 toothed; the oblong lip deeply fringed. Stem: Slender, i to 

 2 ft. high. Leaves: Lance-shaped, parallel-veined, clasping 

 the stem; upper ones smallest. (Illustration facing p. 176). 



Preferred Habitat Peat-bogs and swamps. 



Flowering Season July August. 



Distribution Northeastern United States and eastern Canada to 

 Newfoundland. 



One who selfishly imagines that all the floral beauty of the 

 earth was created for man's sole delight will wonder why a flower 

 so exquisitely beautiful as this dainty little orchid should be hidden 

 in inaccessible peat-bogs, where overshoes and tempers get lost 

 with deplorable frequency, and the water-snake and bittern mock 

 at man's intrusion of their realm by the ease with which they 

 move away from him. Not for man, but for the bee, the moth, 

 and the butterfly, are orchids where they are and what they are. 

 The white-fringed orchis grows in watery places that it may more 

 easily manufacture nectar, and protect itself from crawling pil- 

 ferers: its flowers are clustered on a spike, their lips are fringed, 

 they have been given fragrance and a snowy-white color 1 

 they may effectually advertise their sweets on whose removal by 

 an insect benefactor that will carry pollen from flower to flower 

 as he feeds depends their chance of producing fertile seed, 

 probable the flower is white that night-flying moths may see it 

 shine in the gloaming. From the length and slenderness of its 

 spur it is doubtless adapted to the sphinx moth. 



At the entrance to the nectary, two sticky disks stand on 

 guard, ready to fasten themselves to the eyes of the first moth that 

 inserts his tongue; and he finds on withdrawing his head that 

 >vo pollen-masses attached to these disks have been removed 



165 



