CORALLORHIZA 139 



I. THE EARLY CORALROOT 



Corallorhiza Corallorhiza (L.) Karst. (Plate LII., Fig. I.) 



The Early Coralroot has a smooth, naked stem grow- 

 ing from four to twelve inches in height. Several close 

 sheathing bracts clasp the stem at the base, and at its 

 summit the half-inch dull, dingy purple blossoms hang in a 

 raceme from one to three inches in length. The pedicels on 

 which the flowers hang are so short as to make them appear 

 sessile, and the bracts below them are so small as to be 

 almost invisible. The early time of blooming, May and 

 June, the shortness of the pedicels, and the drooping habit 

 of the flowers on the raceme are the characteristic sign 

 by which this Coralroot may be known from the others 

 that so closely resemble it. It grows in swampy places 

 and is often found as a near neighbour of Calypso, but it is 

 rather rare, though it has a wide range, being found as far 

 north as Nova Scotia and Alaska, and as far south as the 

 mountains in Georgia. It can stand the coolness of 3,000 

 feet altitude in Vermont, and it grows in Europe. It would 

 appear from such a widely scattered habitat that it must 

 once have been a common plant, and that the condi- 

 tions that serve it now hardly well enough to keep it in 

 existence among its leafy neighbours, were once sufficient 

 to its needs. 



The sepals and petals are about quarter of an inch 

 long. The lip is shorter than the petals, and is whitish. 

 It has two minute notches at the end (Plate LIV., Fig. i). 



