ORGANOTOPIC PR ANTS. l6l 
was the most ‘ ‘ grown-up ’ ’ thing that I saw any of the 
young birds do. 
I am looking forward expectantly to the coming 
summer, hoping that the birds will nest here again. 
But the great, dead tree with the white, spreading branch¬ 
es, that stood near the stump, where I caught my first 
glimpse of the red heads, has since fallen, and I fear that 
the place will not seem so attractive to them now that their 
dressing-room, and resting-place, is gone. 
Newton, Mass., February 22. 
Organotopic Plants. VI. 
BY FREDERICK W. BATCHEEDER. 
A wood on the shores of Lake Winnipesaukee is the 
hiding-place of the rare and beautiful plant which is the 
subject of this article. The plant is one of the treasures 
of the leaf-mold, a “humus plant.” In anticipation I have 
already alluded to it as a hemi-saprophyte, and also as a 
partial symbiot. It may be either—very likely it is both. 
The forest here has long been undisturbed by the wood¬ 
man’s axe, and a layer of organic matter in a state of de¬ 
cay covers the ground, so that the conditions are favorable 
to the development of the organotopic or dependent plants. 
Moisture and darkness combine to give them a suitable 
habitat. Under the beeches grow the beech-drops (Epi- 
phegus,) under the oaks the squaw-root (Conopholis,) and 
scattered about are the cancer-root (Aphyllon,) the coral- 
root (Corallorhiza,) the Indian pipe (Monotropa,) and the 
false beech-drops (Hypopitys.) As a rule, where any rare 
plants are found, one should look for other rarities; so in 
this spot there is an incitement to careful search. Here is 
a rugged slope extending from near the lake shore upward 
towards the high hill beyond. Hemlocks, birches, maples 
