214 FAMILIAR FLOWERS OF FIELD AND GARDEN. 



Bat boneset taffy (taken for a cough) 

 was quite another thing, and children 

 used to be very tolerant of it for reasons 

 which it is unnecessary to explain. The 

 plant grows about three feet high, has 

 a spreading leaf (more correctly a pair 

 of leaves) through the middle of which 

 the main stem appears to pass, and bears 

 a head of small, fuzzy white flowers 

 which are not bright or attractive enough 

 to look pretty. The plant flowers in late 

 summer and frequents low meadows, 

 ladies' Tresses. Toward the end of 

 Spiranthes cernua. glimmer and through 

 September the sweet smelling tiny flow- 

 ers called ladies' tresses may be found 

 in the swamps or in the wet meadows. 

 The little plant is easily identified by 

 the spiral growth of the white blos- 

 soms about the stem, which is not 

 often over eight inches tall. This 

 flower belongs to the Orchis family, 

 and is a near relative of the pink and 

 yellow moccason-flowers which bloom in 

 the spring and early summer. There 

 is another variety of ladies' tresses, called 

 S. gracilis, which grows in dry ground 



