STUDIES OF PLANT LIFE 
month of June, when it may be seen beside the gay Painted 
Cup (Castilleia coccinea), the Blue Lupine (L. perennis), 
the larger White Trillium, and other lovely wild flowers, it 
forms a charming contrast to their various colors and no less 
varied forms. 
The stem of the larger Moccasin flower is thick and 
leafy, each many-nerved leaf sheathing the flowers before 
they open. The flowers are from one to three in number, 
bent forward, drooping gracefully downwards. The golden 
sac-like lip is elegantly striped and spotted with ruby red; 
the twisted narrow petals and sepals, two in number of 
each. kind, are of a pale fawn color, sometimes veined and 
lined with a deeper shade of brown. 
SHowy OrcHIs—Orchis spectabilis (L.). 
(PLATE VII.) 
‘‘ Full many a gem of purest ray serene 
The dark, unfathomed caves of ocean bear ; 
Full many a flower is born to blush unseen, 
And waste its sweetness on the desert air.” 
—Gray. 
Deep hidden in the damp recesses of the leafy woods, 
many a rare and precious flower of the Orchis family 
blooms, flourishes, and decays unseen by human eye, un- 
sought by human hand, until some curious flower-loving 
botanist plunges amid the rank, tangled vegetation and 
brings its beauties to the light. One of these lovely natives 
of our Canadian forests is known as Orchis spectabilis 
(Beautiful Orchis, or Showy Orchis). This pretty plant is 
not, indeed, of very rare occurrence; its locality is rich 
maple and beechen woods in eastern Canada. The color 
of the flower is white, shaded, and spotted with pink or 
purplish lilac; the corolla is what is termed ringent or 
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