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a new region is a true pioneer. Every step is an adventure, 

 every moment pregnant with possibilities of delightful surprise. 

 He may ramble or scramble for an hour without one cheering 

 sight; when he pauses to take breath or to get his bearings, he 

 may look down and see a Listera or some rarer Habenaria waiting 

 to be admired. He may even hesitate to gather the treasure, 

 for he knows thac it will never present again an aspect so al- 

 together charming as in its chosen place of growth. The col- 

 lector of terrestrial orchids is bound to be something better than a 

 hunter. In the tropics, gathering orchids may be chiefly com- 

 mercial; in our zone, it is aesthetic in good part. The diligent 

 searcher for these alluring denizens of meadow, bog and forest 

 is not desirous simply to find herbarium specimens or to add to 

 the number of local species; he enjoys the living plants, appre- 

 ciates their oddities, is charmed by their almost bewildering 

 v^ariety of form and function, studies them in their homes, in 

 their life. He enjoys the hunting, too, even when it is for the 

 time unrewarded, for his search takes him into secluded places, 

 where the silence sometimes is "wide, velvety, complete"; 

 where, with happier frequency, the solitude is vocal with the 

 songs of birds or thrilling with the myriad, incessant, little noises 

 of the wild ; or his footsteps wander over a carpet of Linnaea or 

 sink with cushiony comfort into fragrant beds of sphagnum; 

 he tiptoes around or over quaking bogs and pauses to scrutinize 

 tuft and tussock for an Arethusa or a Listera; while every moment 

 he is pleasurably aware that his next glance may fall on some de- 

 sired species that he has hunted for years or, with almost equal 

 satisfaction, on one well-known, but beautiful, and not dises- 

 teemed because familiar. Each orchid-lover who is able to 

 roam the woods and fields and traverse the bogs finds in his 

 own wishes and activities a perennial fountain of joy. While 

 he is making new friends or renewing old acquaintance, he 'is 

 storing fragrant memories; many, a remote woodland spot be- 

 comes as clear, to grateful recollection, as his own dwelling; he 

 becomes too full perhaps of reminiscence, but never quite re- 

 plete with adventure or ready to give over the search, 



Fairlee, 



Vermont. 



