
ORCHID FAMILY. Orchidaceae. 
petals, which are alike. They are beautiful and yet not 
quite pleasing, for we feel instinctively that there is some- 
thing unnatural about them and, indeed, the strange 
absence of any green coloring matter in their make-up 
indicates that they are incapable of making their own 
food from the elements and draw their nourishment from 
decaying vegetation, or are parasitic on other plants. 
They range northward from Yosemite but are nowhere 
very abundant. I found several growing near the trail 
from Little Yosemite Valley to Cloud’s Rest and a good 
many in the woods near the foot of Mt. Shasta, where they 
seem to be quite common. 
There are several kinds of Serapias, widely distributed; 
tall, stout herbs, with creeping rootstocks and leafy stems; 
the leaves plaited lengthwise and clasping at base; the 
flowers with leafy bracts, in terminal racemes. The 
flowers have no spur; the sepals and petals are separate 
and nearly equal; the lip broad, free, concave below, 
constricted near the middle. 
A handsome plant, decorative and 
curious in form and unusual in coloring. 
Chatter-box ; 2 
Serapias gigantea 1t is from one to four feet tall, with a stout, 
(E pipactis) leafy stem bearing three to ten flowers and 
Reddish and smoothish leaves, with prominent veins. 
greenish-yellow The sepals are reddish or greenish-yellow 
Summer SS ail “ a 
Went ete. and the petals pinkish, veined with 
maroon. The lip is pouched at the base, 
with a winged margin and a pendulous tip, which swings 
freely as if on a hinge, so that it quivers when the plant is 
shaken. Although the flowers are very handsome this 
curious tremulous motion, which makes them seem almost 
alive, gives them a quaint likeness to an old woman in a 
sunbonnet, with a hooked nose and chattering jaw. They 
have a slight scent and the plant is quite common along 
streams and in wet places, in the West and in Colorado and 
Texas. Some botanists think it is identical with a variety 
which grows in the Himalaya Mountains. It was named 
for the Egyptian deity, Serapis. 
Stream Orchis 
74 
