88 
THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 
This is usually more easily found, and is here much more abund- 
ant than the adder's mouth. Near these I occasionally find H. 
ciliaris, but the growth is mostly too dense here for this lover of 
the sunlight, for it needs the bright orb to paint it in glowing col- 
or. //. lacera blooms among the dark shadows of swamp maple 
and pepperidge. 
P'or several years I have never failed to "find the large blue-green 
velvety leaves of Arontimii aqiLatictnn—goXdtn club~in the brook 
which runs through this swamp; but this year for some unex- 
plainable reason my attractive neighbor was absent, and the brook 
really seemed to miss it and I felt lonely to see the empty spot 
where my old friend had been for so long. Why it died I cannot 
guess. Close by in the dusky aisles under the largest old swamp 
maples grow fine plants of Aspidium simiilatum. Such lovely 
great fronds of tenderest green! I must handle them carefully 
indeed if I am to get them out of this thicket undamaged. This 
is to me a beautiful variety, especially when it grows in this spot. 
A bit lower down the brookside I find quantities of narrow-leaved 
chain fern (Woodzvardia angustifGlia.) This fern seems to need 
sunlight in order to send up its dark stemmed heavily fruited 
fronds. Here too are tall glowing stalks of the cardinal flower 
(Lobelia cardinal is) a dazzling beauty. Just beyond the swamp 
and in the low woodland adjoining I find the quaint blossoms of 
that curious orchid Pogonia verticillata. I frequently haunt 
this odd little company as long as the flowers last. Their long 
dusky purple and green sepals are so odd, the dainty purplish 
lip with the pretty odd little crest, the whorl of green leaves and 
the maroon green stalk w^ith its ''bloom" all combine to make this 
little plant seem to me the very embodiment of the time of burst- 
ing bud and flower. From the prevalence of the same tints of 
green, maroon and brown in plant leaf and soil which surround it. 
as well as its own low stature this little plant is not easy to find. 
In the east swamp I find the cardinal flower has thrust up bright 
wands all along the brook. I also find Habeiiaria tridentata in 
the sphagnum bogs but the little adder's mouth is entirely absent 
as is also my favorite A. sirnulatiirn. Not one plumy frond of it 
can I find for all my vigilance, neither in the more elevated wood- 
