178 
WILD FLOWER FAMILIES 
slender, suggestive of blades of grass, while the 
rather small white flowers are spirally arranged 
in three rows on the sides toward the upper end 
LADIES’ TRESSES 
of the flower stalk 
which averages about a_ 
foot in height. These 
flowers are visited by 
bees, which begin at the 
bottom of the spiral 
and work upward. They 
effect the pollination of 
the blossoms through 
one of the curious con- 
trivances for which the 
Orchid family is fa- 
mous. The pollen is in 
a mass which you may 
see if you will insert the 
point of a lead pencil 
into the flower and then 
withdraw it. The deli- 
cate odor of the flowers 
has been celebrated by 
Emily Shaw Forman in 
these lines: 
Fragrance like thine no rose of June can yield; 
No lily can eclipse thy snow, dear prize, 
Flung backward from sweet summer as she flies. 
