HARPER'S GUIDE TO WILD FLOWERS 



Calopogon. Grass Pink 



Calopogon pulchettus. — Family, Orchis. Color, rose and a pur- 

 plish pink. Leaf, i, long, narrow, grass-like. Among our love- 

 liest bog-orchids is the beautiful calopogon. A scape, bearing a 

 single leaf, issuing from a sheathing base, produces a few rose- 

 colored flowers, the lowest in bloom while the upper ones are 

 still in bud. The lip appears above in the upper part of the 

 flower, broadened at terminus, and bearded with white, yellow, 

 and crimson hairs. This is the normal position of the lip. In 

 most orchids it is brought under, to form an insect platform, 

 by the twisting of the ovary. In this the ovary does not twist. 

 The outer sepal, thus brought below, is large and broad, and 

 forms, quite as well as the lip, a place for the visiting insect to 

 stand upon. Root a bulb. June and July. 



This is not a rare plant. Many swamps are crimsoned in 

 spots by this striking and beautiful flower. It is worth one's 

 while to leave the city for a June holiday in order to find 

 the calopogon in one of its wet haunts. In wet meadows 

 and bogs. Newfoundland to Minnesota and southward to 

 Florida and Missouri. (See illustration, p. 249.) 



Arethusa 



Arethusa bulbbsa — -Family, Orchis. Color, rose pink. Lea], 

 single, 4 to 6 inches long, narrow, hidden at first, appearing after 

 the flower. Lip, pendent, rounded and toothed at apex, fringed, 

 spotted with purple, with 3 white ridges running down its sur- 

 face. Other petals and sepals, long, narrow, arching over the 

 petal-like column. Fruit, a capsule 1 inch long. May and June. 



One of our most beautiful orchids, but quite local in its 

 habit. In its favorite swamp it reappears year after year 

 with unerring certainty. The flower is an inch long, sub- 

 tended by 2 small scales. The lip, broadened and gracefully 

 curved, is fringed with soft, purplish hairs. The root is a 

 bulb. From it arises a scape, 6 to 10 inches tall, at first leaf- 

 less except for 2 or 3 sheathing bracts at its base. From the ' 

 upper bract, later, the linear leaf grows. Why this orchid 

 should be dedicated to the nymph Arethusa can hardly be 

 explained. Diana changed the nymph into a fountain in 

 order to save her from the pursuit of a too ardent lover. 

 Does the arethusa bury itself in swamps for self-protection 

 against its fond admirers who love it and pursue it almost 

 to its extinction, when once its retreat is discovered ? 



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