56 OUR NATIVE ORCHIDS 



touch the stigma, so in this they he poised on the bee's head 

 in such a position that as he plunges in to take a drink the 

 pollen masses strike and stick to the stigma. 



15. PRAIRIE WHITE FRINGED ORCHIS 



Hahenaria leucophcea (Nutt.) A. Gray. (Plate XXV., Fig. 2.) 



The western prairies have a white fringed orchis with 

 fragrant flowers that grows large enough to be almost as 

 beautiful and conspicuous as the yellow and the other 

 white fringed orchis. It is a stout plant with an angled, 

 leafy stem, set with long, clasping, pointed leaves, and it has 

 a very thick, loosely flowered spike of white blossoms. 

 These are sometimes tinged with green. They cannot be 

 mistaken for the other white fringed orchis, for the latter, 

 Hahenaria hlephariglottis, has a long, narrow-spined lip, 

 while the lip of the Prairie White Fringed Orchis spreads like 

 a three-parted, deeply fringed fan. The same long spur, an 

 inch or an inch and a half in length, swings from the lip, as 

 in the Yellow and White Fringed Orchis. 



It loves moist prairies and takes its name from the free 

 lands under the open sky in Western New York and the 

 Middle States, where it blooms in July 



16. LARGE PURPLE FRINGED ORCHIS 



Hahenaria grandiflora (Bigel.) Torrey. (Plate XXV., 



Figs. 3 and 4.) 



The Large Purple Fringed Orchis is the most regal and 

 glorious of all the fringed orchids. One cannot but sym- 



