160 EVERYDAY ADVENTURES 
cally the mystic word “‘Blephariglottis.”” In front of 
him, on a green stem, was clustered a mass of little 
flowers of incomparable whiteness, with fringed lips 
and long spikes. One petal bent like a canopy over 
the brown stamens, while the other two flared out on 
either side, like the wings of tiny white butterflies. 
It was the white-fringed orchid (Habenaria blephari- 
glottis). Beside her whiteness even the snowy petals 
of the water-lily and the white alder showed yellow 
tones. Like El Nath among the stars, the white 
fringed orchid is the standard of whiteness for the 
flowers. 
Three great blue herons flew over our heads, folded 
their wings, and alighted not thirty yards away — 
an unheard-of proceeding for this wary bird. A 
Henslow sparrow sang his abrupt and, to us, almost 
unknown song. The Botanist neither saw nor heard. 
All the way home he was in a blissful daze, and when 
I said good-bye to him at the station, he only mur- 
mured happily ‘‘Blephariglottis.” 
