154 



THE NATIVE ORCHIDS OF NEW ENGLAND. 



win's time, how crude was our knowledge of these ex- 

 quisite adaptations ! I kept my beautiful habenaria 

 growing in my room for two weeks before I could make 

 up my mind to press it, With a 

 pencil point or theend of the finger 

 I played the moth in extracting the 

 pollinia, and watching the down- 

 ward movement of the stalk, and, 

 whereas the moth's reward was 

 the nectar, mine was an insight into 

 the mysterious and wonderful 

 working of nature, who often 

 effects her most beautiful ends in 

 the quietest manner. 



Habena>-ia psycodes, another pur- 

 ple fringed orchis, is commoner 

 than the last, and found with it. 

 It much resembles H. Jinibriala , 

 though its flowers are smaller, and 

 the lip is less deeply fringed. The 

 ragged fringed orchis I am very 

 fond of, though its greenish colored 

 flowers are by no means conspicu- 

 ous to the passer-by. But its lip 

 has a more exquisitely copious 

 fringe than any of the others, and 

 the flower is very delicate. Most 

 any bog or damp wood will be sure 

 to reveal it. I think that a very 

 small proportion of our orchids 

 develop good fruit. The blossoms 

 seem generally to wither or drop 

 ofi, ovary and all. I got excellent 

 fruit of this ragged orchis in Jaf- 

 frey, N. H,, one September. It 

 was growing on a moist, shady 

 bank by the roadside, and I 

 watched it carefully as it developed 

 its fine capsules. I had little fear 

 of the plants being disturbed, for 

 when an orchid has reached its 

 fruiting time, it is a very unattract- Fig. 4. Fruit of 

 ive plant. Its leaves are generally Putty-root. 

 dead and gone or dried and with- 

 ered, mimicking the dead leaves of the woods or fields. 



The white fringed orchis [H. blepharigloitis^) is another 

 handsome plant. To see its raceme of white fringed 

 flowers, come with me to Acton again. It grows in a 

 spongy bog on the borders of Grassy Pond, shaded by 

 overtopping shrubs, in company with the leather-leaf 

 [Cassaiic/i a calyciilaia) and the pale laurel [Kabtiia glama ). 

 I do not call it common, though it is found throughout 

 our range. It stands a foot or two high, and bears a 

 raceme from two to four inches long. 



My old friend in Acton took me once to the top of 

 Bear Hill, covered with a growth of pines, and there 

 I found in abundance //. Hookeri. It has yellowish 

 green flowers, and is not an attractive plant. It bears 

 two spreading leaves at the base, three to four inches 



wide. It used to grow abundantly in Shelburne, N. H., 

 on a wooded knoll by the Androscoggin river, and, in 

 fact, ranges all over New England. 



A near relative, and a far more striking plant, is H. 

 orbiciilata^ common in the rich woods of northern New 

 England. It has greenish white flowers, and at the base 

 of the scape or leafless stem, two large, shining, fleshy 

 leaves, lying flat on the ground. I found a fine plant of 

 this species last July in Jaffrey, N. H., in a rich wood. 

 Its leaves had a spread of fourteen inches and the plant 

 was beginning to form its fruit. I marked the spot, 

 propped up, with a forked stick, the heavy, drooping 

 stem, and paid frequent visits to it during the summer. 



In September, just before leaving for home, I col- 

 lected the plant in splendid fruit and have even preserved 

 the sawdust-like seeds. The next year's bud, white, and 

 as big as the thumb, was well developed under the dead 

 leaves and rich soil at the base of the stem, ready to 

 perpetuate the growth the following season. 



Habenaria iridentata (Fig. 2, smaller plant) occurs 

 everywhere in boggy places. It is small, never over 

 a foot in height, with but two or three leaves, and very 

 small, inconspicuous greenish flowers. On a wide 

 stretch of wet meadow in Concord, Mass., where 

 Thoreau was wont to roam, communing with nature, 

 I found some nice specimens, a few years ago, of H. 

 virescens. I nearly passed the plants by, half-hidden as 

 they were in the grass, with their green leaves and blos- 

 soms so like the color of the surrounding vegetation. I 

 do not call this species very common, but it is found 

 throughout New England. I treasure these specimens, 

 not only for their scientific value as complete represen- 

 tatives of the species, for I took the roots up carefully, 

 though it was hard digging, but, because they were 

 pressed and dried in Hawthorne's study in the Old 

 Manse, by the North Bridge, where the first blow for 

 American Liberty was struck. 



In the damp woods of northern New England we will 

 come across two modest species of this genus, less than 

 a foot in height, //. bracteala and H. obtiisata. The 

 small, greenish flowers shrink from the gaze of the 

 vulgar, but the botanist finds them and always gives 

 them a warm welcome. //. hyperborea and H. dilatata 

 (Fig. 2, taller specimen) are two rather coarse, leafy- 

 stemmed plants, two feet and less in height, growing over 

 our states ; the former green-flowered, and the latter 

 white-flowered, the blossoms small and unattractive. I 

 found these plants in great profusion in a boggy field by 

 ■Willoughby Lake, Vt. The two species were freely 

 intermingled and were from six inches to two feet high. 



I have but one more habenaria to record, the ex- 

 tremely rare and beautiful yellow fringed orchis {H. 

 aliaris). Its bright orange-yellow flowers are exquis- 

 itely delicate and attractive. Though growing on the 

 Blue Hills, not many miles from Boston, I have never 

 seen it, the discoverer of the station guarding it with 

 jealous care. 



Rambling about, as we are, in rather a desultory man- 

 ner, let us visit in early June some rich bog, in almost 



