HABENARIA 57 



pathise with Thoreau, who grumbled because It grew so 

 abundantly in the Maine woods, where only the moose and 

 moose hunters could see it, and so rarely in Concord where 

 philosophers dwelt. It has, however, although freakish in 

 its habits, a wide range, so that its scarceness in certain 

 localities may be due to the ruthlessness with which people 

 who are not philosophers have snatched these long, stately 

 stalks to put in vases. It grows during June and July in 

 rich woods and meadows from New Brunswick and Ontario 

 and Michigan as far south as North Carolina. 



It is the tallest and stoutest of all the North American 

 orchids. Its strong stalk, with clasping sheath above 

 the fleshy root, is sometimes half an inch in diameter, and 

 it may grow five feet high, though three or four feet is its 

 average. 



Its several large leaves are oval or lanceolate, from four 

 to ten inches long and from one to three inches wide. Bald- 

 win says that he has found them as broad as a man's hand. 

 The stalk is deeply grooved and is beribboned with narrow 

 leaves on its upper half. The magnificent lilac or purple- 

 pink raceme at its summit has fifteen inches as its greatest 

 recorded length, but it averages from three to ten inches, 

 with a diameter of two to three inches and over. 



The fragrant fluttering blossoms, with their green pointed 

 bracts and their long spurs, make a loose feathery spike, 

 which, as Baldwin says, "suggests a flock of birds struggling 

 to get foothold on the same branch." 



The characteristic sign of the species is the peculiarly 



