PEJIAMIUM 117 



pitted surface was thought to resemble the surface of the 

 lungs. Consequently it was used as a cure for consumption. 

 It is probably by the same law of the healing power of re- 

 semblances that the Indians fancied that the mottled snake- 

 striped leaves of this orchid were good for rattlesnake bites. 

 Captain Carver said that they "were so convinced of its 

 power as an antidote that they would allow a snake to drive 

 its fangs into them, and chew the leaves and apply them to 

 the wound." Pursh says it has a wide-spread reputation 

 as an infallible cure for hydrophobia, and a New England 

 divine tells us that the leaves of Rattlesnake Plantain were 

 used by the country folk to make a decoction to cure skin 

 diseases. 



In 1672, Josselyn mentions the plant in a book called 

 "New England's Rarities." But he called it a Pyrola. 

 There can be no mistaking his quaint language-painting of 

 the leaves, "the Ground whereof is a sap Green, embroy- 

 dered (as it were) with many pale yellow Ribs." 



The difference between the leaves of the Downy Rattle- 

 snake Plantain and the Lesser is distinct enough to be seen 

 at a glance when the plants grow near each other in the 

 woods. The Downy species is more blue-green and its 

 leaves are more silvery, while the leaves of the Creeping 

 species have more yellow in the ground and veining. 



The leaves are also larger than in preceding species, being 

 from one to two inches long, oval or ovate. They narrow 

 into clasping petioles and lie in a neat tufted rosette, from 

 the centre of which the flower scape rises. 



