HARPER'S GUIDE TO WILD FLOWERS 



or at the time of flowering. Root, a single, long, and narrow tuber. 

 August and September. 



Massachusetts to Florida, westward to Texas. In dry 

 soil, near the coast. 



S. praecox. — An earlier blossoming species (July and August). 

 Possibly a little taller than the last, with long, persistent, grass- 

 like root -leaves, and bracts surrounding the stem above. The 

 white flowers, often with green veining, not fragrant, stand out 

 horizontally and twist around the stem. Racemes apt to be 

 one-sided, 10 to 30 inches high. 



Spring, in the south; summer, as far north as New Jersey. 

 Near the coast. 



Slender Ladies' Tresses 



S. cernua. — A variable species, both in height and leaves. 

 This is, perhaps, the commonest of the orchids. The different 

 species of ladies' tresses are much alike, all being known by 

 the twisting of the spike of flowers. In this species the flowers 

 are in rows of threes, quite close together, slightly fragrant, white, 

 on a straight, tall stem. The sepals and petals are stiff and 

 waxy. The lip is folded or wavy, oblong, turned down. There 

 are long root -leaves, which at time of flowering have, generally, 

 disappeared. Leafy bracts, beginning below the spike, follow 

 around with the flowers. September and October. 



Wet meadows, and sometimes in bogs. Maine to Georgia, 

 and westward. (See illustration, p. 53.) 



Rattlesnake Plantain 



Epipdctis pubescens, — Family, Orchis. These flowers are small, 

 about \ inch long, with free side sepals, the upper sepal with 

 the petals, united into a helmet-shaped form. Lip, a pocket, or 

 sac-shaped. Flowers in a dense, terminal spike on a scape 6 to 20 

 inches high, bearing several scales. Leaves, several, clustered at 

 the root, ovate, softly downy, conspicuously veined with white. 

 August to October. 



A pretty and common plant of the woods, especially pine 

 woods, known at once by the pretty rosettes of white- veined 

 leaves at the root. Whole plant soft-downy. Range, over 

 the Atlantic seaboard and westward to Tennessee. (See 

 illustration, p. 55.) 



E. ripens is a species found in woods, especially under ever- 

 greens; lower and more slender than the last, with leaves not so 



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