December b, 1S97.J 



Garden and Forest. 



483 



New or Little-known Plants. 



Orchids in the South Mountain, Pennsylvania. 



FOR several years thediscoveryof "high-toweringspikes 

 of Purple Orchis," Habenaria fimbriata, had been an 

 unrealized dream, but this year, late in June, unexpectedly 



Fig. 6u. — Habenaria fimbriata. 



I found three stalks growing close together on a shaded 

 islet of the Conococheague, in the western border of the 

 South Mountain, in Pennsylvania, and most reluctantly 

 bore away the specimen illustrated on this page. This 



plant was twenty-eight inches in height, with a flower- 

 spike three inches in diameter and seven inches in length. 

 In the orange Habenaria, owing to the greater number of 

 flowers, the lower portion of the spike is usually withered 

 some time before the upper part has opened, but in this 

 specimen of H. fimbriata almost every blossom was more 

 or less expanded and quite un faded when 

 first gathered. Lifted above the mat of moss 

 and grass in which it was growing, it was 

 regal and almost startling as one suddenly 

 came upon it the first time. 



This Habenaria is rare in that locality, 

 probably owing to washouts in recent years 

 along many branches of the Creek, for 

 other Orchids growing in meadows and 

 protected places are abundant. My assist- 

 ant told me he had seen but one other speci- 

 men, and I wish that careless collectors of 

 wild flowers might have seen the way in 

 which he took up and carried this plant. 

 The photograph conveys an idea of the 

 stately habit of the plant, but fails entirely 

 (owing to the reduced scale — only one-third 

 the natural size) to indicate the rich fullness 

 of its foliage, and without color it is impos- 

 sible to imagine the clear translucent tone of 

 its feathery blossoms. Purple is such a 

 violent-sounding term to use, and yet these 

 delicate flowers are undeniably purple, of a 

 very pure tone, with no red apparent. 



The Habenarias bear transplanting very 

 well, and nothing could be more beautiful in 

 large grounds with a running brook than a 

 grassy point set with purple Orchis and 

 screened from the sun by overhanging 

 Nemopanthes, white Azaleas and Witch 

 Hazels. 



The graceful, delicate little plant, Pogonia 

 ophioglossioides, bears what Mr. Baldwin 

 truly calls a harsh and irritating name ; 

 one of the names that has helped stifle a 

 growing interest in many a flower lover, who 

 with appreciation of delicate texture, ex- 

 quisite color and form, has not yet mas- 

 tered Greek roots. In the South Mountain 

 the Pogonia is found in quantities in the latter 

 part of June, but it is easy to miss them for 

 their season of bloom is short. One week 

 there is an expanse of grassy field, the next 

 week it is starred with the lovely pink blos- 

 soms, and the following week one may look in 

 vain for one. 



Pogonia ophioglossioides is by no means 

 always found associated with Calopogon, 

 but the latter is invariably found with the 

 Pogonia, and two stalks of C. pulchellus, to 

 the left in the illustration on page 4S5, were 

 allowed to remain in the sphagnum bed 

 when the Pogonias and their concealing 

 grasses were lifted from their swamp-mea- 

 dow home, and carried sixty miles to be 

 photographed. 



The Pogonia is fibrous-rooted, with slen- 

 der two-leaved stems usually the height of 

 the surrounding marsh grass or seven or 

 eight inches tall ; but frequently specimens 

 ten and twelve inches high and bearing two 

 flowers are found. The pink color of this 

 Orchid has been the subject of many vain 

 attempts at description, and is to other pinks 

 what the blue of Fringed Gentian is to other 

 blues, unforgettable but indescribable. It is a pure pink, 

 not rose or flame tinted ; of uniform tint in sepals and 

 petals, excepting the bearded lip, which is white, with 

 groups of epidermal cells scattered irregularly along the 



