ii6 OUR NATIVE ORCHIDS 



the stem with a short petiole, at a slight distance from one 

 another, instead of all rising from the base. The scape is 

 slight, downy, and has small scales which pass into bracts 

 below each flower. 



The characteristic sign is that the flower spike is one- 

 sided. It is short and bears in a row small greenish white 

 flowers about a quarter of an inch long. The lip is rounded 

 into a little honey sac, with a narrow apex. Darwin has 

 observed that it, as well as Peramium pubescens, is fertilised 

 by bees in the manner just described. 



The species grows in woods all over our continent, as 

 well as in Europe and Asia. It is as familiar in Nova 

 Scotia as in Florida and Colorado, and it has been thought 

 to grow as far north as Alaska. It grows at an altitude of 

 5,000 feet in Virginia. It blooms in July and August. 



2. DOWNY RATTLESNAKE PLANTAIN 



Peramium pubescens (Willd.) MacM. (Plate XLVL, Fig. i.) 



There has always been a tendency among superstitious 

 folk to associate any natural object that resembled a part of 

 the body with a cure for disease of that organ. The leaves 

 of hepatica, because they were liver-shaped, were supposed 

 to be good for liver complaint, and this beautiful little 

 spring flower has been almost exterminated in this country 

 by a patent-medicine company that some years ago used its 

 leaves as one of its ingredients. The well-known lichen 

 Sticta pulmonaria was so called because its foUicled and 



