WESTERN RATTLESNAKEPLANTAIN 
Peramium decipiens (Hooker) Piper 
The common name applied to this plant refers to the resemblance 
of the beautiful white veinings of the leaves to the markings on a 
rattlesnake. It seems a pity to be obliged to include the word “plan- 
tain” in its name, however, for it is not in any way related to the weeds 
to which this name applies, being instead a delicate orchid. The tech- 
nical name of the genus is not used in all books, some authors pre- 
ferring to substitute Epipactis or Goodyera. The rosette of leaves is mote 
conspicuous than the flowers, which are borne, usually, on one side 
of a stout stem. The plant loves decaying wood, and it grows fre- 
quently under evergreen trees where the air is cool and damp, though 
the soil is dry. 
Western rattlesnakeplantain occuts from the mountains of New 
Mexico and California northward to British Columbia and sparingly 
eastward to the Great Lakes region, and even to northern Maine and 
Quebec. 
We found it in the Selkirk Mountains twenty miles beyond Gla- 
cier, British Columbia, at an altitude of 3,000 feet. 
PLATE 350 
