C 48 ] 

 GREAT FRINGED ORCHIS 



June 8, 1854. Find the great fringed orchis out 

 apparently two or three days. Two are almost fully 

 out, two or three only budded. A large spike of pe- 

 culiarly delicate pale-purple flowers growing in the 

 luxuriant and shady swamp amid hellebores, ferns, 

 golden senecios, etc. It is remarkable that this, one 

 of the fairest of all our flowers, should also be one of 

 the rarest, — for the most part not seen at all. I think 

 that no other but myself in Concord annually finds 

 it. That so queenly a flower should annually bloom 

 so rarely and in such withdrawn and secret places 

 as to be rarely seen by man! The village belle never 

 sees this more delicate belle of the swamp. How little 

 relation between our life and its! Most of us never 

 see it or hear of it. The seasons go by to us as if it 

 were not. A beauty reared in the shade of a convent, 

 who has never strayed beyond the convent bell. 



Journal, vi, 337, 338. 



June 15, 1852. Here also, at Well Meadow Head, 

 I see the fringed purple orchis, unexpectedly beauti- 

 ful, though a pale lilac purple, — a large spike of 

 purple flowers. Why does it grow there only, far in 

 a swamp, remote from public view.? It is somewhat 

 fragrant, reminding me of the lady's-slipper. Is it 

 not significant that some rare and delicate and beau- 

 tiful flowers should be found only in unfrequented 



