THE NATIVE ORCHIDS OF NEW ENGLAND. 



I-AIRIES OF THE WOODS AND SWAMPS. 



CASUAL observer of our native 

 New England orchids would 

 not find them, I think, very 

 numerous. His eye would be 

 struck by those that are clothed 

 in brilliant colors, and would 

 rest there, without continuing 

 its search for the many unob- 

 trusive but delicate species that reveal themselves 

 only to the diligent and enthusiastic botanist. 



The orchid family (Orikidaicce) is very abundantly 

 represented throughout the New England states, and 

 occurs in the widest variation of form. Small and in- 

 conspicuous in some species, modestly nestling among 

 the damp moss-grown rocks of some mountain cliff, in 

 others we find large and handsome plants growing 

 abundantly in moist woods, as if escaped from some 

 tropic home. Nature has kindly furnished the showiest 

 orchids in the greatest abundance, and we need not fear 

 for their extermination, for in pulling up the plant, the 

 root rarely follows. As the plant is a perennial, it is 

 thus not destroyed, for it is only the botanical collector 

 who cares for the roots, and here let me say that the 

 ruthless destruction and extirpation of so many of our 

 interesting plants is, I feel sure, due to the reckless van- 

 dal, who pretends to love flowers, and shows his zeal by 

 tearing and ripping up everything in his reach. Let a 

 rare plant be known to the true botanist only, and it is 

 safe. 



Our orchids grow in every conceivable situation, on 

 barren moors, in deep swamps, on dry hill-slopes and by 

 dusty roadsides. The characteristic features lie in the 

 flowers, which are perfect, that is with staminate and 

 pistillate organs, the one or two stamens which each 

 flower possesses being most curiously borne upon the 

 pistil, instead of being quite separate from it, as in most 

 plants. The floral envelope consists of six divisions, 

 the upper petal, which by a twist of the ovary appears 

 generally as the lower one, being very variable in size 

 and shape, and called the Hp. It is here that Nature 

 runs riot and revels in giving this lip a thousand forms, 

 now inflating it, as in the lady's slipper, and again cut- 

 ting it into delicate fringe, as in our purple fringed 

 orchis (Fig. i). Very few of the orchids are capable 

 of self-fertilization, and the wonderful adaptation of all 

 their parts to insect agency has been most admirably 

 shown by Darwin in his treatise on the subject. 



Most of our species grow naturally in the soil : the 

 epiphytes, or air-plants, which attach their roots to other 

 plants, but without drawing any nourishment from them, 

 as in the case of the parasites, occurring farther south. 



The roots vary extremely from finely fibrous to tuberous. 

 Within the limits of our range, there grow as many as 

 15 genera and 47 species. Let us take some rambles in 

 the woods, and through the fields, and, perchance, on 

 mountain slopes and make an acquaintance with the 

 principal ones. 



I have in mind, first, a beautiful wood in Shelburne, 

 N. H., among the White Mountains, where I have 

 passed many a delightful summer, I should like to tell 

 of the many interesting plants found there, but orchids 

 are the subject of my story and I must limit myself to 

 my theme. Well, as we 

 enter this enchanting 

 wood, and tread the soft 

 pine needles under foot, 

 w e shall see, early i n 

 July, the ground spangled 

 with the beautiful stem- 

 less lady's slipper ( Cypyi- 

 pcdiuiii acaule). It has 

 selected this particular 

 spot to show its greatest 

 variation in color. In- 

 deed, as I sprang over 

 the wheel of my buggy 

 in my eagerness to rush 

 into the wood, I thought 

 that I had found some- 

 thing quite new. Many 

 of the plants were snowy 

 white, and were freely 

 mingled with the normal 

 rose-purple ones. It was 

 a beautiful contrast. By 

 a little careful search I 

 got a series of six plants, 

 showing every gradation, 

 from the pure white, 

 through white with rosy 

 streaks, to the deepest 

 purple. This lady's slip- 

 per is one of our showy 

 orchids and is common 

 all through the states. 

 It has two large leaves 

 at the base, and a single 

 flower on a stem which -pio 

 is some 12 inches or less 

 in height. Its large in- 

 flated lip, nearly two 

 inches long in this species, is the prominent character of 

 the genus. 



PURPLE-F R I N G E D 



Orchis {Hahciiaria 

 Jiinltyin/a). 



