STUDIES OF PLANT LIFE 
well as for the eccentric forms which arise from the 
peculiar arrangement of their floral organs. 
The one above named is worthy of attention. Our quaint 
old herbalists would have called it the Holy Dove, or some 
such name, from the curious resemblance that thé petals 
and sepals take to the body and extended white wings of a 
hovering dove, the lower lobed petal taking the semblance 
of the tail and wings, the upper ones meeting over the 
anther-cells, which might be likened to the two eyes of the 
bird, and the arched hooded appendage above to the head. 
The scape of this pretty Orchis is furnished with one 
handsome round or shield-shaped leaf, of shining bright 
green, and a bracted spike of white flowers, spotted with 
delicate pink, as also is the throat of the arched petal that 
partly covers the anthers and stigmatic disc. 
Our beautiful Orchids, with many other rare bog plants, 
repay the difficulties of obtaining them in their native 
haunts, such as cedar swamps, cranberry marshes, poplar 
swales, and peat bogs, where, however zealous, our lady 
botanists may not venture without risk. 
These rare plants, growing in lonely isolated places, are 
little known and but seldom met with, unless, as I have 
said, by the enthusiastic botanist who is not afraid to seek 
for such floral treasures, however difficult they may be to 
obtain. A curious and handsome species is the Striped 
Orchis or Coral-root (Corallorhiza striata, Lindl.). This 
plant is leafless, silvery-sheathing scales taking the place of 
leaves; the roots are branched and knobby, like some kinds 
of coral; the scapes, many flowered, grow up in clusters 
from twelve to eighteen inches high; the flowers are pale 
fawn, striped and dotted with crimson or purple—such was a 
plant that I found at the-root of a big hemlock tree near 
the forest road where I often walked many years ago. 
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