ii8 OUR NATIVE ORCHIDS 



The chief characteristic of this species is the thick down 

 upon the flower scape. The scape grows from six to 

 twenty inches in height and bears a cluster of small greenish 

 white pouched flowers. They are barely a quarter of an 

 inch long; but with a magnifying glass one can see the ovate 

 lateral sepals, the honey sac of the full lip whose edge is not 

 recurved in this species, and also the tiny column with its 

 sticky stigma on the under side of the shelf and the pro- 

 jecting anther above it. 



The Downy Rattlesnake Plantain is an inhabitant of 

 dry woods from Newfoundland to Ontario and Minnesota. 

 Its habitat extends as far south as Florida and Tennessee. 

 It is found at an altitude of 4,000 feet in the mountains of 

 North Carolina. It blooms in July and August. 



3. MENZIES' RATTLESNAKE PLANTAIN 



Peramium Menztesii (Lindl.), Morong. (Plate XLVL, 



Fig- 3-) 



This Rattlesnake Plantain was named after the explorer 

 Menzies, and is not common enough in the East to be 

 mistaken for the more familiar species. It grows in Canada 

 from Quebec to British Columbia, and was first added to the 

 New England flora by Miss Furbish, who found it in the 

 extreme north of Maine. 



It is now reported from various woodland places in New 

 Hampshire, New York, Minnesota, Arizona and California. 

 There the sequoia make dark carpets for its mats of leaves, 



