34 



The Canadian Field-Naturalist 



[Vol. XXXIII. 



My first botanical survey of the bush country im- 

 pressed me more with the abundance of the species 

 that were missing than with that of those present. 

 After the swamps and bogs of Southern Ontario the 

 new field seemed miserable and poverty-stricken. 

 One of my earliest quests was for orchids. In Old 

 Ontario I was on speaking terms with some thirty- 

 two of these little aristocrats and the possibility of 

 making some new acquaintance among them always 

 added the keenest zest to a day's botanizing. Kap- 

 uskasing has treated me but poorly in this regard 

 for here I have met only four species, all familiar. 

 I found some Habenaria hyperhorea growing sturd- 

 ily in the lush grass beside the railway track, a com- 

 mon enough acquaintance before, but welcome now 

 for the family's sake. Later search located 



than two or three blossoms at a time, but here I 

 could count thirty within a radius of three paces and 

 over a hundred in sight. I felt myself a second 

 Odysseus in Ogygia, with the roles of infatuation re- 

 versed, and it finally needed the Hermes of a raven- 

 ing appetite to tear me away from the spot. 



Nor are orchids the only rare visitors; for even 

 plebeians are very sparsely distributed here. The 

 spring woods show few of the familiar faces of the 

 south — no Hepaticas, White or Purple Trilliums, 

 Bellworts, Leeks, or Dog Tooth Violets. I have 

 found a few unhealthy specimens of Sanguinaria 

 canadensis, Viola cucuUata, and Anemone parvi- 

 flora, but there is little else remmiscent of an Old 

 Ontario spring. Trillium cernuum, a smaller plant 

 than its brother T. grandiflorum, and characterized 



Weiswinin Falls, May 22. 1917. 



Microst^lis monophyllos and Corallorrhiza Iriftda 

 on a damp, wooded hillside. They, too, were not 

 prizes to bear home in triumph for the admiration of 

 friends — poor, shy slips of green, they are the de- 

 spised Cinderellas of their kind, with just a touch 

 of inherited grace in their soberness. But one 

 pleasant surprise was in store for me. I was tramp- 

 ing one mild June day through an open spruce woods 

 that crowns the steep bank just below Weiswinin 

 falls on the Kapuskasing. There was little under- 

 growth but a wonderful carpet of moss, a most 

 beautiful display of Hypnum Crista- caslrensis spread 

 out like elfin ferns. Then suddenly I burst into an 

 enchanted glade and saw the ground dotted with 

 gems of purple and white and gold. It was the 

 most wonderful bed of Calypso borcalis that I have 

 ever seen. I had never before come across more 



by a recurved peduncle whereby the blossom hides 

 its face among the leaves whorled below, is met with 

 occasionally. Coptis trifolia is plentiful in June. 



The slashed clearings and "brule" have a some- 

 what different flora from the woods. The first- 

 comer to push through the mould was a stranger to 

 me, and one whom I have never identified to my 

 complete satisfaction in Gray. In the main it seems 

 to answer to the description of Anaphalis margar- 

 iiacea, var. occidentalis, being an erect dioecious com- 

 posite, with linear-lanceolate, subtomentose leaves 

 and small whitish florets. It is, however, more 

 fleshy and herbaceous than the Pearly Everlasting, 

 flourishes in mucky loam, and never attains more than 

 3 dcm. in height. Corydalis aurca and C. semper- 

 virens are ubiquitous in burnt-over areas, their 

 supremacy being undisputed until the later arrival of 



