THE ORCHIDS OF NEW ENGLAND. 93 
Having living specimens of these three Orchids in my garden, 
this fall (1883), I have taken pains to note the dates when 
their leaves appeared: Calypso, Sept. 2d; Aplectrum, Sept. 
oth; Tipularia, Sept. 14th. As Z. discolor blossoms late in 
July, it has, one might say, but little rest from toil, and some- 
how the wriggling spur and spreading sepals and petals convey 
the idea that the plant really has a good deal of business on 
hand. My drawing was made, I should add, from a fine and 
large specimen. 
A meadow in midsummer presents the same temptation to a 
pedestrian that an untracked sheet of ice does to a school-boy. 
‘There is a great satisfaction in making the first break in the 
soft, undulating expanse that resists the knees so feebly; and 
your path is sure to be a winding one, for on this side and that, 
lilies, rues and spirzeas beckon, and as their beauty will not avail 
them when the scythe is whetted, why should you not antici- 
pate it? If the ground is at all damp and the meadow skirts 
some woods, notices to trespassers will fail to daunt the 
stubborn man who is after Fringed Orchises and suspects that 
some are secreted among the bushy knolls and hummocks. 
Habenaria fimbriata (O. grandiflora), the Large Purple or 
Tattered-fringe Orchis, less common than the smaller and 
later species, H. psycodes, is claimed for June by Rhode Island; 
while dates from Burlington, Vt., Claremont, N. H., and Mt. 
Desert, Me., would seem to indicate July as its proper period 
northward. I have seen leaves as broad as a man’s hand, 
and I think it has as opulent and self-assured an air as any 
of our Orchids. Its loose, feathery spike, which saves it 
from any imputation of coarseness, always suggests to me a 
flock of birds struggling to get foot-hold on the same branch. 
A curious specimen was reported to the American Naturalist, 
not long ago by Mr. W. W. Denslow, of Massachusetts, in 
which the flowers were all abnormally developed and destitute 
of both fringes and spurs, and the herbarium of Columbia Col- 
