152 OUR NATIVE ORCHIDS 



with water, making a sticky paste with which they were 

 able to mend their broken crockery. 



Like Calypso bullosa, this plant begins its cycle of life 

 late in summer or early in September, by sending up from 

 a two-year-old corm a single leaf. "A stiff, dark purple 

 horn first pricks the ground, rises slowly, for it has a long and 

 severe life before it, and when it grudgingly uncurls, shows 

 a coarse leaf, greenish on the upper side, and threaded with 

 numerous white veins. Crushed down and bleached by the 

 snows, it presents itself in the spring in a very wrinkled 

 condition, holding on bravely till the plant flowers, when it 

 withers away." 



The leaf is from four to six inches long and from a half- 

 inch to three inches in width, being sometimes elliptical and 

 sometimes ovate in shape. 



The smooth flower stalk grows from one to two feet high, 

 bearing two or three scales. A small raceme with several 

 inch-long flowers hanging loosely on short pedicels. It 

 looks rather like a Coralroot, for the narrow flowers are a 

 dull yellowish brown mixed with purple, and are formed 

 of narrow sepals and petals about half an inch long. The 

 lip is shorter than the petals and slightly three-lobed with a 

 wavy margin. It is white, flecked with purple, and free 

 from the slightly curved short column. 



The ovoid angled capsules grow to nearly an inch in 

 length and hang upon the flower stalk. 



The plant is not uncommon, growing from Ontario to 

 the Northwest Territory and Oregon, south to Georgia, 



