NATIVE WILD FLOWERS 
There are several different species of this curious order, 
varying in size and the color of their blossoms. Of fringed 
and tufted, fragrant kinds, we have the Pearly White and 
the Fringed Pink Orchids. These are very pretty and not 
uncommon flowers. I first saw them on my voyage up the 
St. Lawrence, when the ship was anchored off Bic Island 
and the Captain brought me a noble posy of sweet flowers, 
the first Canadian flowers I ever saw. Among Wild Roses 
and elegant Blue Lungwort (Mertensia maritima), which I 
had also seen and gathered near Kirkwall, in Orkney, there 
were yellow Loosestrife, Harebells, and the sweet-scented 
White-fringed Orchis, the Pink-fringed Orchis and some 
elegant cream-colored Vetches, with several other flowers 
then unknown.to me. 
There are many other plants of the Orchis family 
scattered through our woods and swamps and on the rocky 
or low islands of our northern lakes. Among those not 
already mentioned, the Larger Fringed Orchis (Habenaria 
fimbriata) may be named. This is a tall handsome bog- 
plant, flowering in the beginning of July, with large rose- 
purple deeply-cut petals. Another less conspicuous species, 
found in dry woods, is the Northern Green-man Orchis, 
Habenaria viridis (L.), var. bracteata (Reich). The scape 
of this species is furnished with long narrow sharply-pointed 
bracts and greenish flowers. 
In some of our orchidaceous plants when examined there 
will be seen at the base of the fleshy scape two roundish 
bulbs or tubers, farinaceous masses, whence the bundle of 
white fibres, the roots and rootlets proper, proceed, and 
which contain the prepared food to support the growth of 
the year. 
From one of these tubers the scape, bearing the scaly or 
leafy bracts, root-leaves and flowers, springs, and at the 
flowering season is much larger than the other. 
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