HABENARIA 59 



ward movement of these pollen masses with a watchmaker's 

 glass in the eye, it will be possible, perhaps, to see that the 

 little drums contract on one side and that the depression to 

 the proper angle is caused by this mechanical device. 



17. SMALLER PURPLE FRINGED ORCHIS 



Hahenaria psy codes (L.) A. Gray. (Plate XXVI.) 



The Smaller Purple Fringed Orchid is the one that brings 

 the greater delight to flower lovers because it is more readily 

 found. Its long, slender wand of lavender blossoms, fringed 

 like the eyelashes of an houri, are found in meadows and 

 swamps and wet woods all through July and August, from 

 Newfoundland to North Carolina and from New England 

 to Indiana. 



It is so like the Large Purple Fringed Orchis in every 

 respect except size, that is has often been taken for the 

 same species, or at least for a smaller variety, but it has its 

 own distinctive characteristics. In the first place it is very 

 slender and fragile in its appearance, and never grows more 

 than three feet high. Its leaves are strong and stout and 

 smooth, with a heavy midrib, but narrower and more 

 lanceolate than those of the Larger Fringed Orchis. They 

 clasp the square purple-mottled stem on the lower half, 

 completely, passing into shorter bract-like leaves above, as 

 in all the other fringed orchids. 



The flower raceme is much shorter and narrower than in 

 the Large Purple Fringed Orchis. It is generally two to 



