YELLOW AND ORANGE WILD FLOWERS 
principal character of the blossom is the very long, 
slender spur which hangs from under the drooping 
spreading lip, and the usual variously cut and fringed 
design of the latter. The Yellow Fringed Orchis ranges 
from New England to Ontario and Michigan, and 
south to the Gulf States. 
RAGGED ORCHIS 
Habenaria lacera. Orchid Family. 
The greenish yellow flowers of the Ragged Orchis 
are “all tattered and torn,” like the man in the nur- 
sery rhyme 
“That kissed the maiden all forlorn, 
That milked the cow with the crumpled horn.” 
It is a common and inconspicuous Orchid, differing 
distinctly from all others by its remarkable fringed 
lip, which is so fantastically slit and slashed that it ~ 
is comparatively difficult to describe. The rather 
slender, round, smooth stalk grows one or two feet 
high, and bears several firm, alternating, lance-shaped, 
yellow-green leaves, which become very much smaller 
and bract-like as they approach the top. The numer- 
ous flowers are gathered into a loose, terminal, misty 
green or feathery spike. The sepals are pointed oval, 
and the upper one is a little the broadest. The petals 
are oblong, and the long lip is divided into three 
spreading parts, each of which is hopelessly cut into 
an irregular thread-like fringe. The curving spur 
is very long and slender. The Ragged Orchis blos- 
soms during June and July, in bogs, swamps, and wet 
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