THE ORCHIDS OF NEW ENGLAND. 39 
proved by the fertilization last year of some dwarf Yellow 
Lady’s Slippers that were brought the year before from a 
swamp fifteen miles away. The spot where they were set out 
in my garden is not far from the lake shore, to be sure, but 
the nearest place where any Lady’s Slippers grow, and that 
high ground, is two miles away. They were, therefore, not de- 
pendent upon the insects of any particular locality, and even 
in a very sheltered, and as it seemed unfavorable position, were 
quickly found out by the proper bees or flies. 
Orchis spectabilis is called a True Orchis, because its anther- 
cells are “ parallel and contiguous,” and the glands of the stigma 
(the viscid discs) are enclosed in a pouch; and next to the True 
Orchises, in botanical arrangement, stand the Naked-gland 
Orchises, belonging to the sub-genus Gymnadenia. In these 
the anther-cells are still parallel, but the viscid discs, though 
near together, have no pouch to enclose them. We have but one 
representative species in New England, A. tridentata, to be 
spoken of hereafter, as it blooms later than Orchis spectabziis, 
although allied to it in structure. After the Naked-gland 
Orchises, in our botanies, come the False Orchises, belonging 
to the sub-genus Platanthera, and these, says Gray, have 
their anther-cells “more separated and divergent,” so that the 
viscid discs, also unenclosed, “ are carried, one to each side of 
the broad stigma.’’ In some species, in which the discs do not 
stand far apart, there are curious contrivances, such as a chan- 
nelled lip, lateral shields, etc., compelling moths to insert their 
proboscides directly in front. “The sticky disc, in some 
American species looking like a little pearl button, stands, 
when the flower bud opens, directly in the way of the head of 
a moth or bee; and here the viscidity of the disc is beautifully 
adapted to the state of things, for although fully exposed to 
the air, instead of setting hard at once, as in Orchis, the disc 
retains its viscidity during the whole period of the expansion 
of the flower, awaiting the coming of the insect, and quite sure 
