48 OUR NATIVE ORCHIDS 



flowers are the same length as the bracts that grow beneath 

 them. The flower itself is not very large, perhaps a half 

 to three-quarters of an inch, including the slender twisted 

 ovary. The sepals are roundish-ovate, and those at the 

 side spread apart. The two small upper petals and the 

 lip are fringed like the teeth of a comb, through more than 

 half their length. The spur is shorter than the lip, and less 

 conspicuous in this species than in Hahenaria ctliaris. It 

 blossoms from July to August. 



12. YELLOW FRINGED ORCHIS 



Hahenaria ciliaris (L.) R. Br. (Plate XXIII.) 



Mr. Henry Baldwin, the orchid lover of New England, 

 has said that this orchid should be called "Flaming Orchis," 

 "a fit symbol of the wealth and glow of August; resplendent 

 in orange and gold, not only in sepals and petals, but even 

 in spurs and ovaries, and admitting but one rival, the 

 Cardinal Flower, burning its torch well into September in 

 northern New England." 



It is delightful to note that this orchid is not rare. There 

 is a bog near Plymouth, Mass., where it is said to be "almost 

 a weed," and there are places near New York where it is 

 gathered by the ruthless in armfuls. The Northern woods, 

 whose flowers are often so inconspicuous compared with those 

 of the South, glory in this orchid, for in many a ferny meadow, 

 or open bog, or the wet banks of a brook, all the way from 

 New England to Minnesota, and south to Florida and 



