THE AUGUST FIELDS. 99 
By the dusty roadside as well as along the wood- 
land path we come upon the trailing or erect stems of 
the bush-clover, of which five species are quite common, 
especially Lespedesa polystachya, Michx., and L. cap- 
ztata, Michx. Closely associated with them are some 
of our nine species of tick-trefoil, Desmodium, of which 
D. Canadense, DC., and D. nudiflorum, DC. are the 
most noticeable. 
Sproutlands are favorite places for the false fox- 
glove, Gerardia, of which we often find three species 
near each other, G. pedicularia, L., G. flava, L., and G. 
guercifolia, Pursh, with large yellow flowers, almost 
covering the tall, more or less branching, and leafy 
stems. These are showy plants, and attempts have 
been made to cultivate them, but being partially para- 
sitic on the roots of other plants, they have defied all 
such attempts. In the low lands by the roadside or on 
the gravelly margin of some pond, we may find the 
loveliest, though smallest, of them all, the purple 
gerardia (G. purpurea, L.). 
Shooting up near by should be found numerous 
specimens of one of our small-flowered orchids, the 
ladies’ tresses (Spivanthes cernua, Richard), with its 
delicate, white, sweet-scented flowers arranged in three 
ranks and crowded in a close spike. In similar places, 
here and there, a solitary small purple-fringed orchis 
(Habenaria psycodes, Gray) may be found. This is 
