466 



OUR NATIVE ORCHIDS. 



and hope that further use will be made of C. Fairiea- 

 nu7n as a parent plant. A fine orchid of surpassing beauty 

 is in bloom in the famous collection of Baron Schroeder, 

 The Dell, Eghan. It is named C. insigne Sandersce, 

 and is the loveliest form of this favorite species I have 

 seen. The description in the present instance can convey 

 only a poor conception of its character. In its flowers the 

 green color is delightfully used ; in truth, they are almost 

 entirely green, but of such a transparent and exceedingly 



delicate tone that we hope more hybrids will be raised 

 in which this lovely blending of green shades is a feature. 

 The dorsal sepal of the flower is white in the upper \ art, 

 the middle to the base is light green, with deeper colored 

 longitudinal stripes ; the petals also are of a green shade, 

 and the lip has just a suspicion of yellow, very distinct 

 and charming ; the staminode is yellow. The plant has 

 a strong habit, like its parents. 



ChiszL'ick. England. Ernest T. Cook, 



OUR NATIVE ORCHIDS. 



LADY S-TRESSES. 



.\NY a lover of wild-flowers, wander- 

 ing over our hilly New England 

 pastures and white-birch barrens in 

 the mid-months of summer, has ob- 

 served a prim little plant, bearing a 

 peculiar spiral of small white blos- 

 soms on a stiffly upright stalk, and 

 possessing, apparently, no vestige of 

 a leaf ; a common plant, and cur- 

 ious enough, on close inspection, 

 to puzzle the unbotanical admirer. 

 "What is it?" has been often 

 asked of me, but I have never 

 met with any person not a bot- 

 anist who was even acqua 

 with its common name, " lady's- 

 tresses." 



This name refers to the appar- 

 ent spiral arrangement of the 

 flowers, which have the effect of 

 being coiled around the stalk, 

 though in reality it is the stalk 

 which is twisted. The scientific 

 name, spiranthes, has a similar 

 but prettier significance, being de- 

 rived from two Greek words 

 meaning a coil or curl of flowers. 

 This unpretending little flower, 

 obscure and hardly noticed, in- 

 habiting worn-out fields and ster 

 ile woods, belongs, nevertheles?, 

 to the aristocracy ; it is as much 

 an orchid as the splendid laelia 

 or Calthya labiata of the tropics. 



The foregoing remarks are ap- 

 plied especially to Spiranthes 

 gracilis, the common summer- 

 blooming species. In June, when 

 the flower-buds are growing, it 

 has a cluster of small oblong, 

 dark green leaves, lying close to 

 the ground, the flower-scape rising from the center ; but 

 you may look in vain for leaves when you find the plant 

 in bloom ; they have all withered away before the flowers 

 appear, as do also those of .V. simplex . 



This sp^ecies — usually ten or twelve 

 inches high, and very slender — blooms 

 before the middle of July, and may 

 often be found as late as the middle, 

 or even the last of September. It has 

 a larger sister, SpiranUies graminea 

 [S. tortilis of some botanists), which 

 also flowers in July, but its blooming 

 season lasts only into August. This 

 plant frequently grows to the height of 

 20 inches or two feet, with a stout 

 stalk and a dense flower-spike, much 

 twisted. Its long, narrow leaves, borne 

 at the base and on the lower part of 

 the stem, do not wither like those of 

 .S'. gracilis, but remain on the flower- 

 ing plant. S. graminea may be found 

 in old grass-fields and low meadows ; it 

 is not common, however, at the north. 



There is a rarer species, Spiran- 

 Uies simplex (fig. 2) — so named by its 

 discoverer, Asa Gray — which comes 

 into bloom late in August and contin- 

 ues through September. It looks like 

 a diminutive form of S. gracilis, only 

 six or eight inches in height, with a 

 fairy-like twist of minute flowers, and 

 commonly no leaves at the blooming- 

 time, though I have occasionally found 

 specimens retaining two or three. Its 

 vii(.)t, however, is a solitary tuber, re- 

 -iembling a little parsnip, not over an 

 inch in length, while the roots 

 of S. gracilis, though some- 

 what of the same tuberous 

 form, are more elongated and 

 several in a cluster. Under 

 a magnifying-glass the tiny, 

 wax-white blossoms of this 

 orchid are delicately beauti- 

 ful ; the crisped and fluted 

 edges of the "lip" suggesting 

 a near likeness to its exotic 

 relatives. Its flower-spikes are 

 narrow, sometimes one-sided. fig 



-SPiRANTHES GRACILIS. 



