72 OUR NATIVE ORCHIDS 



garden, this plant, so widely separated in space, has gone 

 on reproducing itself there and here without variation, 

 through aeons of time. 



2. NODDING POGONIA, OR THREE BIRDS 



Pogonia trianthophora (Sw.) B. S. P. (Plate XXX.) 



Formerly called Pogonta pendula, as descriptive of the 

 drooping flowers. 



A delicate, feeble-looking little orchid is this Pogonia 

 with its snnall scattered leaves and its drooping, fluttering, 

 pinkish blossoms that average about three on the stalk and 

 give it the native rustic name "Three Birds." 



Its smooth, slender stem grows from three to eight 

 inches high, though six inches is its usual height. It springs 

 from a fleshy root and bears from two to eight very small 

 ovate leaves, a half, or at the very most, three-quarters of an 

 inch long. They grow alternately on the crooked curving 

 stalk and clasp it all the way around. From the axils of the 

 upper leaves the flowers grow on slender stalks that at 

 first stand erect but soon droop like a fuchsia. There may 

 be only one blossom and occasionally as many as seven, but 

 the usual number is three or four. 



The blossoms themselves are of that faint rose colour 

 that the botanists call purple, fading to white, and are 

 slightly fragrant. The sepals and petals are all the same 

 colour .and about equal in length, from a half to nearly three- 

 quarters of an inch long. They are elliptical with rounded 



