LISTERA 109 



Carolina, where it ascends as high as 4,500 feet. It blooms 

 from June to August. 



2. HEART-LEAVED TWAYBLADE 



Lister a cordata (L.) R. Br. (Plate XLIIL, Fig. 2.) 



This species is known by its very slender stem, which 

 grows from three to ten inches in height, and its tiny pair of 

 heart-shaped pointed leaves, which sit close to the stem, and 

 are only from half an inch to an inch in length. The 

 purplish flowers are so small that they can hardly be seen in 

 their small slender raceme at the end of the stalk. There 

 may be anywhere from four to twenty in the spike, but as the 

 minute sepals and petals are barely one-twelfth of an inch 

 in length, they must be examined with a good magnifying 

 glass. This reveals the cleft nature of the long, narrow lip, 

 that hangs out twice as long as the petals, and the very 

 small column with the clinandrium or depression in the 

 rostellum just showing above the anther. 



The slender glabrous character of this Twayblade, 

 contrasted with the more sturdy appearance of its sister, 

 indicates that it grows in damp places. It may be found in 

 wet woods all over the northern part of the continent, as far 

 south as New Jersey and Oregon, as well as in Europe and 

 Asia. Though it has no beauty it has its interest in that 

 its complicated mechanism works as perfectly for minute 

 insects who visit it and carry its pollen masses from plant to 

 plant, with as much persistency as the more showy orchids 

 of the woods. 



