BLUE AND PURPLE WILD FLOWERS 
per-testing search, usually required to behold this one 
of the most beautiful of all our American wild flowers. 
The tall, leafy stalk is often deeply grooved and twisted, 
and grows from a fleshy root. The long-pointed, 
lance-shaped leaves are smooth, shining and strongly 
ribbed. They suddenly become very much smaller 
and narrower as they mount the stalk. The exquisite 
lilac or purplish flowers are laden with a heavy fra- 
grance, and are loosely clustered in a large, thick, 
terminal, feathery spike, which is very, very showy. 
The upper petals and sepals are erect, flaring and con- 
necting. The petals are oblong and more or less 
toothed. The widely spreading and highly coloured lip 
is cleft into three broad, fan-shaped divisions, each of 
which is finely fringed to about the middle. The long, 
slender spur is thread-like and curving. This tallest 
and grandest of the Orchidsranges from New Bruns- 
wick, Ontario and Michigan, south to North Carolina. 
SAND SPURRY. PURPLE SANDWORT 
Spergularia rubra. Pink Family. 
A little bit of a plant, growing from two to six inches 
itigh, either single or often forming dense little mats in 
waste places and along roadsides where the soil is dry 
and sandy, from Nova Scotia to Virginia, and Ohio. 
It has also been introduced into California and Oregon. 
It is a native of Europe and Asia. The rather fleshy, 
flat leaves are very small and narrow. They are 
arranged in pairs, and are sheathed at the joint. The 
five concave petals of the tiny flower are bright pink in 
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