ORCHID-HUNTING 147 
I had first found this orchid while hunting for a 
veery’s nest in the marsh. At that time nothing was 
showing except the leaves, which grow on tall, 
round, downy stems. They were beautifully curved 
at the margin, and were of a brilliant green, a little 
lighter on the under side than on the upper, and, 
at first sight, much like the leaves of the well-known 
marsh hellebore. That day was the beginning of a 
ten-year tryst which I kept every summer with 
this wood-queen. Then, alas, I lost her! 
It came about thus. The marsh in which she hid 
was part of a thousand acres owned by a friend of 
mine, who was anenthusiastic and rival flower-hunter. 
Each year, when I visited my colony of these queen 
orchids, I sent him one with my compliments and the 
assurance that the flower belonged to him because 
it was found on his land. I accompanied these gifts 
with various misleading messages as to where they 
grew. He would hunt and hunt, but find nothing 
but exasperation. Finally, he bribed me, with an 
apple-wood corner cupboard I had long coveted, to 
show him the place. It was not fifty yards from the 
road, and when I took him to it he was overcome with 
emotion. 
“T’ll bet that I have tramped a hundred miles,” 
he said plaintively, ‘‘through every spot on this farm 
except this one, looking for this flower. Nobody who 
knew anything about botany would ever think of 
looking here.” 
The next year my wood-lady did not meet me, 
nor the next, and I strongly suspect that she has 
