THE EOYAL FAMILY OF ORCHIDS. 



It will surprise people who think of orchids as the 

 rarest and most beautiful of tropical curiosities to 

 learn that no less than twenty-five varieties of this 

 royal tribe have been found growing wild in Concord. 

 Of the eightythree families which comprise the re- 

 corded flora of our township, the Orchidaceae stand 

 fourth in number of species. The first three are the 

 Composite, numbering sixtythree species, the family 

 which seems nearly universal in late summer, when 

 goldenrod and asters prevail ; the Rosaceae, thirtyfive 

 species, which includes our favorite fruits and berries ; 

 and the Leguminosae, twentysix species, to which 

 beans and clover and other butterfly blossoms belong. 



With but three families larger than the Orchids, we 

 have one which equals them in extent. This is the 

 Ericaceae or Heaths, which comprises, to the unbo- 

 tanical lover of Nature, such widely dissociated plants 

 as the blueberry, the laurel, the Mayflower and the 

 Indian pipe. The Banunculacece or Buttercups come 

 next with twentytwo species, and nothing else num- 

 bers over nineteen ; in fact, most of our families could 

 count their children on one hand. It must always 



