CALYPSO 131 



classification puts the Calypso in the same general group as 

 the Adder's-mouth and Twayblades. 



Although it is common in Oregon and the Northwest it is 

 very rare in New England. As it blooms in May or early 

 June and haunts the cold mountain dampness, it is not apt 

 to be found by the "summer people," who would certainly 

 exterminate it with a rash passion for its loveliness. 



The unpoetic manuals describe it as a bog herb, with a 

 solid bulb and coralloid roots, and a showy terminal bracted 

 flower. 



But the sunset would need to stock a painter's palette 

 if he would represent the little blossom as it hangs from its 

 jointed stalk, some six inches above the ground. The 

 flowers are purple varied with pink and shading to yellow. 

 Deep purple lines accentuate the colour in the crimson 

 petals, and a brush of yellow woolly hairs bristle up under 

 the column, on the two-pointed yellowish tip of the shoe-like 

 pouch. 



Travellers to Labrador and Alaska bring this lovely little 

 orchid home with them, and hunters in Maine see it. It is 

 also found growing in the black soil of the arbor-vitse swamps 

 in Vermont. 



All its nearest of kin, belonging to the genus Caelogyne, 

 live in the East Indies; but this one lone northern nymph 

 has strayed through northern Europe and found homes in 

 Lapland and Russia, as well as in our northern countries. 

 It has been found in Canada "on a high hmestone ridge, 



. . sparsely covered with white pines in holes, caused 



