78 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



apex, sessile, i to 4 inches long, usually only partially developed at flowering 

 time. Flowers solitary, erect or declined, on a peduncle one-half to two- 

 thirds of an inch long; sepals linear, dull reddish purple, spreading, \\ to 2 

 inches long and about one-twelfth of an inch wide; petals linear, erect, blunt, 

 light green and arching above the lip, about five-sixths of an inch long; lip 

 three-lobed at the end, middle lobe broadest, white and crenulate on the 

 margin; two lateral lobes of the lip and the lateral margins tinged and 

 veined with bright crimson-purple, most vivid at the apex of the two lateral 

 lobes, crest of the lip green and papillose. Capsule erect, 1 to i| inches 

 long. 



In moist soil of woods and thickets, often around cold sphagnum bogs, 

 Ontario and Massachusetts to Michigan, Indiana and Florida. Flowering 

 in May and June. 



Arethusa; Dragon's-mouth; Wild Pink 

 Arethusa bulbosa Linnaeus 



Plate 43b 



A low, scapose, smooth plant, 5 to 10 inches high from a small bulb, 

 stem bearing one to three loose sheathing bracts on the stem and a single 

 linear leaf hidden at first in the upper bract and developing after the flower 

 has faded. The single flower arising at the top of the stem from between 

 a pair of small unequal scales, rose-purple, 1 to 2 inches high; sepals and 

 petals similar, linear to elliptic in shape, obtuse, connivent, hooded, and 

 arching over the column; lip usually drooping beneath the sepals and petals, 

 the apex broad, variegated with purplish blotches and crested down the 

 face with three hairy ridges, the margin fringed or toothed. Capsule about 

 1 inch long, ellipsoid, strongly six-ribbed. 



In bogs, low meadows and mossy depressions or moist thickets, New- 

 foundland to Ontario and Minnesota, South Carolina and Indiana. Flower- 

 ing in May and June. One of the most dainty and beautiful of our native 

 orchids. 



