38 THE ORCHIDS OF NEW ENGLAND. 
spicuous, even when it grows in clumps, that one may have 
minute directions given him and yet be unable to put finger 
upon it at once. The Ram’s-head does not confine itself to 
low or damp ground, but is sometimes met with, in Vermont at 
least, on dry hill-sides at the feet of pines. I strongly suspect 
that some elf, refused a night’s lodging in the cradle of a Pink 
Lady’s Slipper, and faring no better on application to a Yellow 
Lady’s Slipper, originated the pert little Ram’s-head as a cari- 
cature of both. 
The musky smell possessed by many Orchids, and used, it is 
supposed, to attract night-flying insects, is very noticeable in 
our Lady’s Slippers, particularly in their roots. It is an earthy 
scent that one grows to like and to associate with nature, as he 
does the smell of a wood fire. The fact that plants of the 
Orchis family rarely grow in abundance, though a single one 
like the English O. szaculata produces over 186,000 seeds, and its 
grandchildren, at this rate of increase, would nearly carpet the 
globe, has been remarked on at length by Mr. Darwin.* Bur- 
roughs, in one of his most successful descriptions, accuses Cypri- 
pedium of affecting privacy, declaring that when he comes across 
it, he seems to be intruding on some very exclusive company ; 
and of our native species, the Pink Lady’s Slipper is apt, for 
reasons before stated, to be found in an isolated state, but ] 
have counted fifty blossoms in a space less than fifty feet square, 
have picked fifteen blossoms of the Small Yellow Lady’s Slip- 
per from one clump, and noticing, one day, as I sat down to 
rest in a cedar wood, twenty young Ram’s-heads within reach, 
I applauded the remark of a companion who was loaded with 
equally valuable trophies: “the only really rare thing in this 
region appears to be grass!” Even these are instances of 
scarcity when compared with the number of spent seed-vessels 
I find each spring. How easily insects discover these plants is 
« Muile. says, his brother ‘‘ estimated over 1,750,000 seeds 1n a single capsule of 
a Maxillaria.” 
