94 THE ORCHIDS OF NEW ENGLAND. 
lege contains a singular form, supposed to be intermediate 
between this and the Smaller Purple Fringed-Orchis, which 
has the middle division of the lip merely toothed like the 
petals. Gray describes the spike or raceme of Hf. fimbriata, as 
“oblong,” that of A. psycodes as “cylindrical;” the petals of 
the former as “denticulate (or toothed) above,” the petals of 
the latter as “ toothed down the sides.” 
Thoreau, who found both these Fringed Orchises in Northern 
Maine, grumbled loudly because they were so abundant where 
only moose and moose-hunters could see them, and so rare in 
Concord. Meehan says of A. fimoriata, that it is most com- 
mon on hilly ground (another point of difference between it 
and the other species), that it ranges from New England to 
Michigan and Southern Ohio, and that England produces 
species “but little different in appearance,” some of them 
known in old literature as Dead Men’s Fingers, Dead Men’s 
Thumbs, and Long Purples (O. morio); two of these names 
occurring in Hamlet in the passage where the queen describes 
the manner of Ophelia’s death. 
“In the stem growth,” the same writer says, “there has 
been a gradual elongation, but we see that it takes but three 
leaves to make a full circle round the stem. We do not notice 
indications of the spiral growth which takes these leaves round 
the stem, but it is there. It is the more sudden twisting and 
arresting of the elongating growth that make the set of 3 sepals 
and 3 petals. These lengthenings and twistings do not go on 
with regular intensity, but as in waves, sometimes fast and 
sometimes slow. If we watch the growth of the flower we 
shall find that it first makes a slow elongating growth, and that 
the twisting comes on suddenly, usually taking but a few hours 
to make a half turn.” 
“The two side divisions of the lip,” says Gray, “aid in 
hindering approach” from those directions, “ while the middle 
division offers a convenient landing-place in front. The con. 
