Chapter VII: Part 7

As Thoreau passed the last house in The Bellows, on his ascent to Greylock, “Rice” called out and told him that it was still four or five miles to the summit by the path which he had left, though not more than two in a straight line from where he was, but that nobody ever went this way; there was no path and it would be found as “steep as the roof of a house.” But Thoreau took the short cut, notwithstanding Wilbur’s warning that he would not reach the summit of Greylock that night. Thoreau says, however: “I made my way steadily upward in a straight line, through a dense undergrowth of mountain laurel, until the trees began to have a scraggy and infernal look, as if contending with frost goblins, and at length I reached the summit, just as the sun was setting.” After taking “one fair view of the country before the sun went down,” Thoreau “set out directly to find water.” It proved to be labor, too. Following down the path for half a mile he came to a muddy place in the road “where the water stood in the tracks of the horses which had carried travellers up.” He drank these dry, one after the other, by lying flat on the earth. He was not able to fill his dipper, and in a place above dug a well about two feet deep, using his hands and sharp stones as spade and hoe. It soon filled with pure cold water, from which he filled his tin cup; and he says: “The birds, too, came and drank at it.” He then proceeded to the rude wooden observatory originally erected by Williams College, for the construction of which Platt—“a friend of mine,” writes Hawthorne in the _Diary_—hauled the material by ox-team. Platt, the stage-driver, boasted of the fact that he was the _first_ man to drive a team to the summit of the then pathless Greylock, led by President Griffin of Williams on horseback, who directed the building of that first observatory. This tower is now replaced by a modern iron structure fifty feet high.

“_There is a vale which none hath seen,_
_Where foot of man has never been,_
_Such as here lives with toil and strife,_
_An anxious and a sinful life._”

THOREAU.]

Thoreau collected some “dry sticks, and made a fire on some flat stones” placed on the floor of the observatory for the purpose, and cooked the rice which he had bought in the village, eating it with a wooden spoon whittled out for the occasion. He was up at daybreak the next morning, and he has left a glorious description of sunrise on Greylock, as seen from the tower in the mists.[54]

The nights are very chill on these summits, even in July. There are now several log-cabins erected on Greylock for travellers to occupy, with stables for horses and keepers in attendance. The Catskills can be seen to the southwestward from this height.

Thoreau set his compass for a lake in the valley to the southwest, and descended the mountain by his own route, on the opposite side to that of his ascent.

My companions and I had climbed the slippery glen to where Thoreau commenced his ascent, and a tiny rivulet slipped over the rocks, which had formerly been dimpled with miniature pot-holes. Along the moss-grown banks, above the brook-bed, grew the familiar leaves of the Wild Ginger, while at the very entrance I discovered the Wild Black Currants (_Ribes floridum_), similar in taste and appearance to the cultivated species. The fruit was covered with bristles, and produced a disagreeable odor like that of the Wild Red Currants on the Dome—reminding one of a skunk.

At the entrance of Æolian Glen, a long log-like slab of rock lay upon the ground, strangely suggesting a petrified tree. Slowly we descended the western side of the vale, counting no less than twenty-two flowing brooklets, and four sun-dried brook-beds between Æolian Brook, at the head of the Bellows, and Walden Farm below. As we approached the meadows where the Wilbur Farm buildings formerly stood, we found a half-dozen spikes of the Ragged Orchis (_Habenaria lacera_) amid the damp grasses. This species I collected also later in the pastures of Rattlesnake Swamp, and found the pure White-Fringed Orchis along the roadside of Ladd Brook Valley in Pownal.

We now arrived at Crystal Spring, where we freshened up before entering the City in the “hollow vale” three miles below.

The formation of the Notch Valley was brought about by one of the successive terminal moraines flowing from the glaciated slopes of the ice-mountains farther northwestward, in the Adirondack region; while later the glaciated shoulders of Greylock’s Brotherhood slowly melted, eroding the slopes with small ravines in which the numerous rivulets flow to-day. The continental ice rivers from the higher glaciers northward apparently culminated in tremendous and successive cascades above Notch Valley, eroding the deep-cut gorges between Greylock and Ragged Mountains. The general directions of these currents, below these waterfalls, were various, finally leading down to the ancient Hoosac Lake, and flowing with it through the natural dam, northwestwardly, to the Hudson Valley, and thence to the sea. According to Professor T. Nelson Dale, an ancient lake six hundred feet deep existed in the Hoosac Valley ten thousand years ago. Perhaps ten times ten thousand years ago, a greater glacial sea overflowed the Hoosac Tunnel Mountains, leaving the bald summit of Greylock alone towering above the waves. As the terminal moraines of the great ice-sheet slowly receded, the various cascades formed pot-hole erosions, in their descent on the Canaan Hills, above the Connecticut Valley. Deerfield Arch was similarly formed by the force and chemical action of the eroding ice rivers, which flowed from glaciers, and wore through the wall of rock spanning the Deerfield Valley. Hawthorne compared this arch to “the arched entrance of an ancient church, which it might be taken to be, though considerably dilapidated and weather-worn.... It was really like the archway of an enchanted palace, all of which has vanished except the entrance—now opens only into nothingness and empty space.... This curiosity occurs in a wild part of the river’s course, and in a solitude of mountains.”[55] Dr. Wolfe says: “The summit of the arch and the water-worn pillars upon either side display ‘pot-holes’ and other evidences of erosion, and in the bed of the current lie fragments of similar attrite rocks which seem to indicate that at some period a series of arches spanned the entire space from mountain to mountain.”[56]

Other erosions known as the “Twin Cascades” are found on the eastern slopes of Hoosac Mountain, above the eastern portal of the Tunnel, formed ages before the Hoosac Lake rippled in the “hollow vale” at North Adams. The Natural Bridge of the Mayunsook Valley is one of the greatest natural formations in Berkshire Highlands, and was also caused by erosions of the ice-currents ages ago.

On August 16th, this season, a great landslide occurred on the southern brow of Greylock, caused by a cloudburst. It began within a few feet of the summit, widening as the loosened soil slipped off the bed-rock of the mountain. It swept down with velocity, becoming several rods wide as it reached the valley. It covered Gould Farm with earth, rocks, and logs gathered in its descent to South Adams, and the machinery in the mills in the village, three miles away, was crippled by the sand and water pouring in about the engines; the streets became canals, and boats were necessary to move about in. However, no lives were lost. The formation rock, from the base of Greylock, is laid bare in the path of this landslide. Six to ten terraced ridges, like stone stairs, are revealed in the ascent for some distance, indicating many ages in geological history. Here is evidence of those slowly receding seas and lakes as they drained from the summits down, stair by stair to the winding Ashuilticook River of to-day.

XVIII

The Natural Bridge of Mayunsook Valley, Northern Berkshire

There’s no music like a little river’s. It plays the same tune
(and that’s the favorite) over and over again, and yet does not
weary of it like men fiddlers.—ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON, _Prince
Otto_.

A narrow vale winds away northeastward from the city of North Adams to Stamford, Vermont. A short walk from the terminus of the car line in The Beaver leads to the junction of Hudson Brook with the Mayunsook River. The Mayunsook is often called the Little Deerfield. It is the North Branch of the Hoosac, rising near Stamford Ponds, and draining the southern and western slopes above Stamford Hollow. The Greater Deerfield River rises also near these lakes, and drains the same mountains from their northern and eastern slopes, flowing around through Readsboro to Zoar, where travellers meet it as they pass out of the eastern portal of the Hoosac Tunnel into the Deerfield Valley. Thus, from their mysterious sources our turbulent rivers and mountain streams bring restful, cooling news from out the higher lands, where scarce the foot of man has been.

On August 7th I explored about Natural Bridge on Hudson Brook. I wore hob-nailed boots, and made a long day’s excursion. Hawthorne knew and loved this wonderful natural feature of northern Berkshire, and here gathered many fancies, which he has woven into his tales. The chasm of Hudson Brook is described as the “Cave” in his _Notes_. His description of the ravine is the finest ever written.

Hudson Brook, tradition tells us, took its name from the hunter Hudson, who, one twilight, dragging homeward a deer he had killed, lost it in this chasm. He narrowly escaped following it himself.

The region is entered either by walking up the bed of the stream itself, or following around the road above Marble Quarry, just east of the chasm. The former is the more direct, but the latter a longer and safer way. In this instance, I followed the travelled highway. I proceeded up the stream where the erosions begin, and readily descended the ravine, following its course downward until I came to a beautiful marble basin or pot-hole formation, which very few see, since it is hidden under the wooden foot-bridge above the natural bridge of rock. Logs and immense rocks barred my way, and I was forced through dark fissures in my ascent to the sunlight.

The pot-hole was evidently the same pool of which Hawthorne wrote: “As the deepest pool occurs in the most uneven part of the chasm, where the hollows in the sides of the crag are deepest, so that each hollow is almost a cave by itself, I determined to wade through it ... there was an accumulation of soft stuff on the bottom, so that the water did not look more than knee-deep; but, finding that my feet sunk in it, I took off my trousers and waded through.”[57] He visited this stream often: “The cave makes a fresh impression upon me every time I visit it,—so deep, so irregular, so gloomy, so stern,—part of its walls the pure white of marble,—others covered with a gray decomposition and with spots of moss, and with brake growing where there is a handful of earth.”[58]

Hawthorne believed firmly that “a complete arch of marble, forming a natural bridge over the top of the cave,” must have covered the whole chasm of the stream at an unknown period. The pot-hole, I am most certain, has been forded by few lads, and it is hardly probable that any other poet or prose master ever disrobed and bathed in its waters as Hawthorne did in 1838. The basin is from six to eight feet deep, with a beautifully rounded, highly polished brim. I christened this bowl “Hawthorne’s Bath-Tub,” and, unable to wade it, climbed out of the “Cave” to the light above. I, however, descended again to see the northern portal of the arch below the Bath-Tub. I was interested in the names painted high and low upon the marble rocks. Some visitors had evidently tried to place their initials as high as possible, while others more modest sought to write theirs as low, and in more obscure places. I regretted that I had not brought a pot of red paint and a brush to daub my own title there, with the ambitious crowd.

The stream, as it approaches the arch of the Bridge, is deep and of a dark green color. The chasm, from the top of the ledge, is about sixty feet deep, and the ravine three hundred feet in length. Geologists say that the ravine was formerly spanned by two ledges of rock, one of which is now in ruins. The piles of rocks in the chasm south of the southern portal of the arch are dazzling white, seen in the noonday sunshine. The fall of water, in its descent through the ravine, is about forty feet to the three hundred feet, so that the eddies play and whirl rapidly through the irregular bed. A wooden tile, or raceway, was hung high over the chasm, across a leaning crag of the original ledge,—conveying water power thereby to mills below. This old structure leaked, and as I descended the banks below, I saw some of the most gorgeous miniature rainbows spanning the depths, as the sunshine fell upon the mist near the arch.

A lad once made a wager with his comrades that he could cross over the ravine upon this wooden tile. The old weather-worn log was slippery with mould and mosses. In making his daring and perilous trip, the youth lost his footing, and fell headlong into the heart of the chasm. Following the fall, a terrific thunderstorm passed through the Hoosac, and night closed over the chasm. The next morning the boy’s lifeless body was recovered. The wooden structure is now replaced with an iron tiling.

I passed on down the path on the west bank, until I reached an immense marble boulder, which was draped with dainty ferns and mosses. Little rivulets flowed from its sides, and climbing around to its southern brow, I was delighted to find many luxuriant plants of Walking Ferns—this making the fifth excursion in succession in which I had found this rare plant.

I entered the ravine below the boulder, and picked my way up the chasm to the southern portal of the arch, where I became wet through from the mist above, as I ventured to look through the cave. Returning, I found a path up the east bank leading to Marble Quarry and the mill below, where grave-stones, door-stones, and various ornaments are manufactured. The most useful piece of work ever turned out here was, in my mind, the Williams College sun-dial tablet, which Hawthorne observed in 1838 as being as large as the top of a hogshead.[59] I have later discovered that this dial was placed near that old Astronomical Observatory on Consumption Hill, near the present College Library,—the first building of its kind erected in the United States, for the study of the worlds above, by Professor Albert Hopkins, in 1838. The bronze sun-dial was supported upon the marble table which Hawthorne saw at the quarry. Around it was carved in the soft marble the now dim inscription:

“HOW IS IT THAT YE DO NOT DISCERN THIS TIME.”

This dial is now among the relics in the College Museum.

The overhanging crag, near the southern side of the arch, will in another half-century or more tumble also into the ravine. One large pine tree and many bushes, growing on this leaning tower, are plying their roots deeply in the marble fissures, and are slowly splitting the rock asunder. I have designated this pile Captain Skipper’s Monument, in memory of him who recorded the last evidences of the Beaver Dam across this stream. Tradition says that the beavers labored centuries before the white man arrived in the Mayunsook Valley, building better than they realized, since they erected a dam which stopped the rippling flow of Hudson Brook. Originally, this stream flowed nearer the surface of the Natural Bridge. It is believed by some that the dam clogged the driftwood from the domes, and thus set the waters back. The force of the eddies, combined with the chemical action of the waters whirling among the logs and rocks, eroded dimples in the soft marble, until they wore the present archway through.

“Our own country furnishes antiquities as ancient and durable, and as useful, as any; rocks at least as well covered with lichens, and a soil which, if it is virgin, is but virgin mould, the very dust of nature. What if we cannot read Rome, or Greece, Etruria, or Carthage, or Egypt, or Babylon, on these; are our cliffs bare?”—THOREAU.]

I followed down the bed of the stream, stepping from rock to rock easily, until I reached the path far below the Marble Quarry, and entered The Beaver, a little village where every one works like the small animals for which it is named. I was now near the junction of Hudson Brook and the Mayunsook; and not wishing to return to the City until sunset, I scrambled up the slippery sides of the hemlock hills above the little river. With the echo of the cavern’s tumultuous roar still in my ears, I now heard, in pleasant contrast, the distant gentle murmur of that flowing stream. When I departed from the vales of these talking streams, I carried with me back to the busy world the remembrance of the voicing fantasies of their songs of wilderness and solitude.

XIX

Orange Mountains, and Salt Meadows, New Jersey

The weapons with which we have gained our most important
victories, which should be handed down as heirlooms from father
to son, are not the sword and the lance, but the bush-whack,
the turf-cutter, the spade, and the bog-hoe, rusted with the
blood of many a meadow, and begrimed with the dust of many a
hard fought field.—THOREAU, _Excursions_.

August 12th I started for the Orange Mountains, in search of Cardinal Flowers, and various other blossoms, which I hoped to find about Eagle Rock. Arriving at those ragged cliffs, overhanging the brow of the mountains above West Orange, I climbed up the winding stone stairs and entered the park. The woods were strewn with small yellow flowers and ferns.

The view from the Rock is vast, as the eye sweeps off over the Great Salt Meadows beyond Newark, to Brooklyn Heights. On a clear day, the tall buildings of New York and the piers of Brooklyn Bridge are discernible. The Goddess of Liberty in the Bay also stands out clearly, and the slow-moving sails and funnels of outgoing steamers are visible. Most people seek Eagle Rock for this view alone.

Farther back in the woods, in May and June, the Pinxter-Flower, False Solomon’s Seal, yellow and blue violets, bluets, and anemone everywhere decorate the rocky soil. Numerous tall weeds towered coarsely along the mountainsides, to-day flaunting their disagreeable perfume ever before me.

I followed southwesterly, along the summit for a mile or more, to Crystal Lake, passing the park called “Wildmont,” to the right of which stands Cobblestone Cottage. The building appears very ancient.

All the vast solitudes of the parks of Orange Mountains are locked within gates, and the entrance labelled, “_No Trespassing, Under Penalty of the Law_.” Law is a specific designation for a certain kind of a broad-headed, bow-legged quadruped—a thoroughbred species not mentioned in the scientific annals of the Hoosac Highlands. After passing the lake, I followed up the swamp toward the distant walls of Wildmont, very desirous of trespassing and seeing the Wild Law in his cage. Soon I found a place where the stones were tumbled out, and where, by lifting a barbed wire, I could crawl through. So happily and leisurely I began to trespass about the woods. I found luxuriant colonies of the Maiden-Hair Fern, tall spirit-like spikes of feathery flowers, and club-like spikes of fringed-purple weeds not seen in the Hoosac Valley. They were so common that I did not gather any, so I never determined their title. In the deeper pools grew a few plants of the Skunk Cabbage. The low bushes and plants were overgrown and coarse in the extreme, amid the dense shades of chestnut and elm trees. The forest, apparently, was still in its primeval state.

As I approached the cottage of Wildmont, I ran upon an old cellar hole, where a building had once stood. The ruins were now prettily covered with myrtle and ivy. From this site, between the parting boughs, I caught glints of a sea of blues in the valley of the Oranges, which was overflowing with glistening house-tops and church-spires. Here I turned about and found a great colony of Indian Pipes.

As I turned from the shades of Wildmont, I walked toward Crystal Lake, along a dry brook bed. Here, indeed, I found a Cardinal show; over a hundred spikes of that brilliant flower danced before my eyes and lighted up the glooms. I had never before seen such flowers as these. The Cardinal-Flower (_Lobelia cardinalis_) is not frequent in Hoosac Valley—at least I have never collected it there. John Burroughs writes of it: “It is not so much something colored as it is color itself.”[60] I gathered many spikes of this flaring colored flower, and passed out to the shore of the lake; children, with their sailboats, ran teasingly after me, until I escaped to a quiet retreat where ice-cream was served. The waiter and the children alike were strangely unfamiliar with this flower, growing so close to their homes.

I passed out over the rocky slopes northward, where I ate huckleberries to my heart’s content. The ghost-like Feathery Plumes, and common Purple Clubs of this region towered everywhere among the woods; and low beautiful plants of the Yellow Gerardia were in full bloom. As I rounded the slope, below the Rock, I collected a fine specimen of the gorgeously colored Orange Butterfly-Weed, or Pleurisy-Root (_Asclepias tuberosa_), of the Milkweed Family. In the swamp farther south on the Orange Mountains, I have formerly collected the Swamp Milkweed flowers, which are similar to Butterfly-Weed, save that they are of a delicate rose-purple color. Our common species northward is the Purple-Flowered Silkweed. It grows along our roadside walls and river banks, and its tender leaves are used as greens, proving very delicious food.

I sat some time on the hillside under Eagle Rock, recalling the various flowers collected along the Northfield Road the year past. Llewellyn and Hutton Parks, along these summits, are always fragrant with blossoms in May and June. I once spent a holiday in Pleasant Valley beyond St. Cloud, in May and June, collecting among other flowers the beautiful Tulip-Tree blossoms (_Liriodendron Tulipifera_), which some lads graciously gathered for me.

The swamps and woods about this vale produce about the same species of flowers and trees as the hills of Mosholu and Lowerre above New York City—marsh marigolds, violets, anemones, dogwoods, and glowing apple orchards that one does not soon forget. One rare flower, however, graces the Orlando Williams Swamp in Pleasant Valley that I find nowhere else. It is the Painted-Cup (_Castilleja coccinea_) of the Figwort Family. It is very similar to the Scarlet Painted-Cup that Bryant wrote about as growing on the prairies.[61]

Frequently country folk call this flower Indian’s Paint-Brush; it somewhat resembles a clover tuft daubed with vermilion. The species found in New Jersey and Staten Island are the same. Thoreau found the scarlet tufts of the Painted-Cup “very common in the meadows” on Staten Island in 1843.[62] The Alpine Painted-Cups of the White and Green Mountains are somewhat different from the species found southward and westward. A friend collected flowers of these strange plants near Woodmont in the vicinity of New Haven, and about Marbledale, Connecticut. These are typical little Figworts.

The lobelias, gerardias, milkweeds, butter-and-eggs, Leopard’s-Bane (_Arnica acaulis_), and field daisies are common in the pastures and woods of St. Cloud and Pleasant Valley. In the distant swamps the Sweet Bay Magnolia (_Magnolia Virginiana_) and the Tulip Tree are the only two common northern species of the Magnolia Family. A single tulip tree is found in the Hoosac Valley, at North Pownal. Tulip trees are abundant in New Haven, Connecticut, and in Bronx Park, and also on Orange Mountains. They thrive especially westward and southward, where they become beautiful flowering trees—often one hundred and forty feet high.

As I came down the Northfield Road from St. Cloud, in June, 1896, I found the pastures full of blooming briar-roses, and the meadows waving with white daisies and golden arnica. The latter flower is replaced in the meadows of the Hoosac Highlands by great patches of the Devil’s Paint-Brush or Orange Hawkweed (_Hieracium aurantiacum_), an emigrant weed from Europe, which is very pretty and fragrant. The Purple Gerardia (_Gerardia purpurea_), the Blue Lobelias (_Lobelia syphilitica_), and _Lobelia spicata_ grow abundantly in Pownal-on-the-Hoosac in June.

As I passed homeward through the Salt Meadows, beyond Newark, on the new Plank Road to Desbrosses Ferry, I began to observe the large pink-purple blossoms of the Swamp Rose-Mallow (_Hibiscus Moscheutos_) and the Marsh-Mallow (_Althæa officinalis_), whose roots contain a mucilaginous substance, and which are closely allied to our cultivated hollyhocks. I soon neared an open ditch by the road, filled with blossoming Arrow-Head (_Sagittaria latifolia_) and Pickerel-Weed (_Pontederia cordata_). The former produces beautiful waxen white flowers, and the latter, blue spikes of ragged blossoms. Not far from this mud-hole on the dry, sandy roadside, I gathered the rank-scented Jimson-Weed or Thorn-Apple (_Datura Stramonium_), a poisonous emigrant weed from Asia, whose Arabic name was _Tatorah_. It is common everywhere about these regions in waste ground, as well as along Kingsbridge Road and Old East Chester near the City. I have also observed it near the poor-house in New Haven, but never in the Hoosac Valley region.

The Salt Meadows of New Jersey, during August and September, are rolling swales of tall sedges and cat-tail grasses. Later in the season, when the golden-rod and purple asters are frozen and brown, and thrown in heaps upon the ground by the autumn winds, one may see great flocks of geese, and the comical purple grackle—the crow blackbird—flying southward over these desolate lands. A deep, weird solitude surrounds these unfathomable swamps. The foot of man and his bog-hoe as yet have never penetrated their regions, although within hearing of Old Trinity’s chimes.

In the Hoosac Valley autumn is a season of glory. Late August produces the gorgeous colored tiger lilies. The swampy meadows in September are brightened with the delicate greenish-white stars of the Grass-of Parnassus (_Parnassia Caroliniana_), first found on that ancient Mount Parnassus in Greece, and described and named by Dioscorides in Christ’s day. Innumerable asters and golden-rod brighten the roadside hedges. In the open clearings of bushy pastures grows the Woolly Moonshine—the “everlasting” of which Thoreau wrote. It is sometimes called Cud-Weed, or Balsam-Weed (_Gnaphalium decurrens_). The Pearly-Everlasting or None-so-Pretty (_Anaphalis margaritacea_) is peculiarly fragrant and beautiful, banked in among the late golden-rods, and the crimson and chrome-colored autumn leaves of sumach and blackberry briars against the dark green pines. I have found these flowers unfolding amid the snows as late as December. Late spikes of Orchids, the Ladies’ Tresses of genus _Gyrostachys_, the Bitter-Buttons or Tansy-Weed (_Tanacetum vulgare_), numerous thistles (_Carduus_), the velvety leaves of St. Peter’s Mullen (_Verbascum Thapsus_), Wormwood (_Artemisia Absinthium_) grow along the roadsides over Mount Œta, while Thimble-Berry blossoms and the Bluebells-of-New-England fill in the waste places of fences and dug-away ledges.

When the cooler days of October come, we may look for that blue flower of heaven, the Fringed Gentian (_Gentiana crinita_), along the roadsides near the swamps of Etchowog, modestly and patiently waiting for the autumnal skies of blue:

Then doth thy sweet and quiet eye
Look through its fringes to the sky,
Blue—blue—as if that sky let fall
A flower from its cerulean well.[63]

So come and fade alike the rarest flowers and the commonest weeds among the Highlands of the Hoosac, the valley of peaceful waters.

It is in the deepest and most secluded swamps that the shy orchid blooms, far beyond the realm of lawn or garden. Few indeed realize what a world of beauty and order lies sleeping unsought and unseen in the mossy recesses of our mountains,—a wonderland of discovery to any one who persistently, though reverently, seeks to lure from Nature the secrets of her deep retreats.

“_Flow on, fair Hoosac, with your gentle song,_
_Flow peacefully through all the centuries long;_
_To that unbounded sea, Eternity!_
_That God decrees alike for Man and Thee._”

G. G. N.]

APPENDIX

NEW ENGLAND ORCHIDS

Nature, in fact that parent of all things, has produced no animated being for the purpose solely of eating; she has willed that it should be born to satisfy the wants of others, and in its very vitals has implanted medicaments conducive to health.... Cato has recommended that flowers for making chaplets should be cultivated in the gardens: varieties remarkable for delicacy, which it is quite impossible to express, inasmuch as no individual can find such faculties for describing them as Nature does, for bestowing on them their numerous tints. Nature, who here in especial shows herself in a sportive mood, takes a delight in the prolific display of her varied productions. The other plants she has produced for our uses and our nutriment, and to them accordingly she has granted years, and even ages, of duration; but as for the flowers and their perfumes, she has given them birth for but a day—a mighty lesson to man, we see, to teach him that that which in its career is most beauteous and most attractive to the eye is the very first to fade and die.

Even the limner’s art possesses no resources for reproducing colors of the flowers in all their varied tints and combinations, whether we view them in groups alternately blending their hues or whether arranged in festoons, each variety by itself.—PLINY, _Natural History_ (23-79 A.D.).

Orchidaceæ

_Orchid Family_

[In compiling the appendix of New England Orchids, the author has followed the order of classification and nomenclature adopted by Messrs. Britton and Brown in the _Illustrated Flora_ of Northeastern North America, 1896, without doubt the highest and most systematic arrangement according to the progress of evolution and the advancement of the science of botany in North America.]

ORCHIDACEÆ, Lindley, _Natural System_, 2d ed., p. 336. 1836.

=Perennial= plants arising from bulbs, corms, fibrous, or tuberous roots. =Stems= or =scapes= 2 inches to 3-4 feet high. =Leaves= parallel-veined, sheathing, and plicate, sometimes reduced to scales. =Flowers= perfect or irregular, solitary or in a spiked raceme, usually subtended by a leafy bract. =Perianth= consists of 6 segments. The =calyx=, or outer whorl, consisting of 3 parts (sepals); the =corolla=, or inner whorl, consisting of 3 parts (petals). The third petal is designated =labellum= (lip), or nectary, and is in orchids the most beautiful part, assuming grotesque shapes ornamented with spurs and fringes. The =stamens= and =pistils= are variously united with the style, forming an unsymmetrical column. =Anther=, 1, or in _Cypripedium_ 2; 2-celled. =Pollen= in 2-8 pear-shaped, usually stalked masses (_pollinia_), united by elastic threads, the masses waxy or powdery, attached at the base to a viscid disk (gland). =Stigma=, a viscid surface, facing the labellum beneath the rostellum, or in a cavity between the anther-sacs (_clinandrium_). =Seed-capsule= (ovary) inferior, long and twisted, 3-angled, 1-celled. =Ovules= minute, spindle-shaped, and numerous; =embryo= fleshy. The colors of orchids are various and beautiful; their fragrance heavy and exquisite in several species. Orchids were known and designated by Linnæus in 1753 as _Gynandrous_, meaning “stamens and pistils united to the column.” There are about 410 genera and from 6,000 to 10,000 species, widely distributed throughout the damp and wooded regions of the world. More abundant in the humid atmosphere of the tropics, where many species are air-plants or epiphytes. The orchids of the temperate and sub-arctic regions are terrestrial, drawing their nourishment from the earth.

North American Orchids, North of Mexico 150-160
New England Orchids 48-56
Hoosac Valley Orchids 40-42

Genera of Orchid Family in New England

GENERA XV. SPECIES 56.

I. _Cypripedium_ Linnæus, 1753—6 species.
II. _Orchis_ Linnæus, 1753—2 species.
III. _Habenaria_ Willdenow, 1805—18 species.
IV. _Pogonia_ Jussieu, 1789—4 species.
V. _Arethusa_ Linnæus, 1753—1 species.
VI. _Gyrostachys_ Persoon, 1807—6 species.
(_Spiranthes_ Richard, 1818.[64])
VII. _Listera_ R. Brown, 1813—3 species.
VIII. _Peramium_ Salisbury, 1812—4 species.
(_Goodyera_ R. Brown, 1813.[64])
IX. _Achroanthes_ Rafinesque, 1808—2 species.
(_Microstylis_ Nuttall, 1818.[64])
X. _Leptorchis_ Thouars, 1808—2 species.
(_Liparis_ Richard, 1818.[64])
XI. _Calypso_ Salisbury, 1807—1 species.[65]
XII. _Corallorhiza_ R. Brown, 1813—4 species.
XIII. _Tipularia_ Nuttall, 1818—1 species.[65]
XIV. _Limodorum_ Linnæus, 1753—1 species.
(_Calopogon_ R. Brown, 1813.[64])
XV. _Aplectrum_ Nuttall, 1818—1 species.[65]

I

Cypripedium

Linnæus, 1753

LADY’S SLIPPER—MOCCASIN-FLOWER

English—Lady’s Slipper.
Latin—Calceolus D. Mariæ, or Marianus.
German—Frauenschuh, or Marienschuh.
French—Sabot de la Vierge, or Soulier de Notre Dame.
Italian—Pontoffala, or scarpa della Madonna.
Algonquin Indian—Mawcahsun, or Makkasin-Flower.
North American—Indian Moccasin-Flower.

The generic name, _Cypripedium_, comes from the Greek, referring to Κύπρις, a former name of Venus, the Divine Mother of the Romans before Christ, and πόδιον, signifying sock, or slipper.

=Glandular= pubescent plants. =Anthers=, 2. =Labellum= shoe-shaped, or conical. =Sepals= and =petals= similar in texture; lower sepals wholly or imperfectly united in all species save _C. arietinum_ R. Brown. =Stem=, 6 inches to 3 feet high. =Flowers=, 1-4 in the Atlantic region and 1-12 in the Pacific region; pendulous, alternating in a bracted raceme. =Pollen= granulose, without caudicle or glands. =Fragrance= heavy, aromatic, or oily save in two exquisitely sweet species, _C. parviflorum_ Salisbury, of the Atlantic region, and _C. Montanum_ Douglas, of the Pacific slope. =Leaves=, 2-several, plicate, light green, somewhat resembling _Hellebore_ foliage, with which plants the _Cypripediums_ were early confused by the ancient herbalists. =Roots= fleshy, fibrous, with spicy, oily, or musk-like odor, used as a nervine. =Seed-capsule= long, three-angled; ovules numerous, minute, resembling saw-dust. Seedlings frequent in many stations. About 50 species for the world.

_Continental Range_—Throughout the _conifer_ wooded and bogland regions from Alaska southward to Mexico. May-July.

North American species 13
New England species 6
Hoosac Valley species 5

New England species:

1. _C. arietinum_ R. Brown, 1813.
2. _C. reginæ_ Walter, 1788.
(_C. spectabile_ Salisbury, 1791.)
3. _C. candidum_ Willdenow, 1805.
4. _C. hirsutum_ Miller, 1768.
(_C. pubescens_ Willdenow, 1805.)
5. _C. parviflorum_ Salisbury, 1791.
6. _C. acaule_ Aiton, 1789.

This species is a native of the Rocky Mountain region, and is closely related to our eastern Fragrant Yellow Lady’s Slipper (_Cypripedium parviflorum_): these two Cypripediums being the only really fragrant species on the continent.]

1.—CYPRIPEDIUM ARIETINUM R. Brown, 1813

RAM’S-HEAD LADY’S SLIPPER—RAM’S-HEAD MOCCASIN-FLOWER

The specific name, _arietinum_, refers to the conical labellum resembling a ram’s head.

Small _conifer_ bogland or damp woodland orchid, with fibrous roots. Rare. May 9th-August 1st.

=Flowers=, one, terminal, mottled dull purple and white. =Labellum= conical, ½-⅔ inch, prolonged at the apex into a reflexed spur. =Sepals= all free. =Petals= narrow, similar in color, and assuming the place of horns to the ram’s-head-shaped flower. =Stem= leafy, 6-12 inches high. =Leaves=, 3-4, dark apple-green; 2-4 inches wide, smooth, without hairs. =Seed-capsule= prominently ridged.

_Continental Range_—From Quebec, Ontario southward to North Haven, Connecticut, and Mt. Toby, Massachusetts; westward to Minnesota, the Great Lake region being the centre of distribution. Limited between the 40th-50th parallels.

_New England Range_—Maine, rather abundant; New Hampshire, rare; Vermont, abundant; Massachusetts, rare; Connecticut, very rare.

2.—CYPRIPEDIUM REGINÆ Walter, 1788

(_Cypripedium spectabile_ Salisbury, 1791)

WHITE-PETALED, OR SHOWY LADY’S SLIPPER—QUEEN OF THE MOCCASIN-FLOWERS

The specific name, _reginæ_, refers to the queenly appearance of the white-petaled flowers.

Large bogland orchid, with fleshy-fibrous roots. Frequent. June 15th-July 4th.

=Flowers=, 1-4 terminal, large, showy, white, tinged with deep pink or wine; the most beautiful species among our native _Cypripediums_. =Labellum= shoe-shaped, inflated, drooping margins of the orifice inflected, crest deeply tinged with pink-purple; interior downy, ornamented with lines of deeper purple. Rarely pure white flowers occur. =Sepals= and =petals= similar, pure white; 2 lower sepals wholly united; side petals narrower than sepals. =Stem=, 1-3 feet high. =Leaves=, 5-7, alternating to top of stem; 3-7 inches long, clasping, 1-4 inches wide; 10-13 plaits; strongly pubescent, produces poisonous effect to susceptible people similar to that caused by _Rhus_.

_Continental Range_—From Nova Scotia southward to the higher mountains of North Carolina, and Huntsville, Alabama; westward to Minnesota, Walhalla Mountains, North Dakota, and the Barrens of Kentucky.

_New England Range_—Maine, frequent; New Hampshire, frequent; Vermont, common; Massachusetts, common; Rhode Island, no stations reported; Connecticut, frequent.

This is the most gorgeous _Cypripedium_ in the world, and without doubt one of the most ancient types of the genus. The stigma is distinctly three-lobed. The plate shows the waxy texture of the white sepals and petals and the wine-colored crest of the shoe-shaped labellum, as well as the highly decorated interior.]

3.—CYPRIPEDIUM CANDIDUM Willdenow, 1805[66]

SMALL WHITE LADY’S SLIPPER—THE PRAIRIE MOCCASIN-FLOWER

The specific name, _candidum_, refers to the white labellum of this species.

Small, damp swamp-land orchid, with fleshy-fibrous roots. Rare. May 11th-June 29th.

=Flowers= small, solitary, and terminal. =Labellum= shoe-shaped, white, striped with purple interiorly; about 1 inch long; orifice small, with edges inflected. =Sepals= and =petals= lanceolate, greenish-brown and purple; lower sepals imperfectly united. =Stem= leafy, 6-12 inches high, pubescent. =Leaves=, 3-4, sheathing, erect, crowded, acute, 3-5 inches long, ⅔-1½ inches wide, several scales below, 7-9 nerved.

_Continental Range_—From Connecticut, Pennsylvania westward to Indiana, North Dakota, Columbia Plains, on the Canadian shore of St. Clair River, to the Barrens of northern Kentucky, and Fort Hill, California, which station appears doubtful; more central distribution being from central New York to North Dakota.

_New England Range_—Recently reported for Connecticut by Mr. A. W. Driggs, of East Hartford.

4.—CYPRIPEDIUM HIRSUTUM Miller, 1768

(_Cypripedium pubescens_ Willdenow, 1805)

LARGE YELLOW LADY’S SLIPPER—DOWNY YELLOW MOCCASIN-FLOWER

The specific name, _hirsutum_, refers to the whole plant being hirsute, or clothed with hairs.

Large bogland or damp mountainside orchid, with fleshy-fibrous roots. May 19th-June 15th.

=Flowers= dull chrome yellow, 1-3, terminal, shoe-shaped, 1-2½ inches long. =Labellum= shoe-shaped, inflated, convex above, chrome yellow, edges of orifice inflected, lined with downy hairs and dotted lines of carmine. =Sepals= and =petals= graceful, petals very much twisted; lower sepals imperfectly united; siskin-green and brown-purple. =Stem= leafy to top, 1-2½ high, pubescent. =Leaves=, usually 5, broadly ovate, 3-5 inches long, 1½-3 inches wide; 7-9 nerved; plicate and hirsute, said to cause poisonous irritation similar to _Rhus_. =Roots= used as a nervine.[67]

_Continental Range_—From the wooded country of the sub-arctic lands in latitude 54°-64° North, southward throughout Canada, New England, to Alabama; westward to North Dakota, Colorado, slightly beyond the Continental Divide in the Rocky Mountain region.

_New England Range_—Maine, common; New Hampshire, common; Vermont, frequent; Massachusetts, abundant; Rhode Island, rare; Connecticut, rare.

5.—CYPRIPEDIUM PARVIFLORUM Salisbury, 1791

SMALL YELLOW LADY’S SLIPPER—FRAGRANT YELLOW MOCCASIN-FLOWER

The specific name, _parviflorum_, refers to the small flower of this species.

Small bogland or damp hillside orchid, with fleshy-fibrous roots. May 19th-July 4th.

Flowers small, yellow, solitary, and terminal. Often intergrades with larger yellow species—(_C. hirsutum_); fragrant, the only _Cypripedium_ in the Atlantic region especially so. Labellum small, ½-1½ inch long, shoe-shaped, drooping lemon-yellow, lined with downy hairs and dotted lines of carmine. Sepals and petals brownish-purple, similar in texture; sepals 2 inches long, graceful, twisted, lower ones imperfectly united; petals glossy and twisting exceedingly. Stem leafy, slender, pubescent, 1-2 feet high. Leaves lanceolate, 3-5 inches long and 1-2¼ inches wide, pubescent, 7-9 nerved; not so villose as _C. hirsutum_ Miller. Said to produce poisonous effect similar to _Rhus_.

_Continental Range_—In company with other species of New England _Cypripedium_; from Newfoundland, British Columbia, southward to Georgia; westward to the sub-humid regions of Kansas, extending slightly over the Continental Divide in Rocky Mountain region. Ascends 4000 feet altitude in Virginia.

_New England Range_—Maine, frequent; New Hampshire, infrequent; Vermont, frequent; Massachusetts, frequent; Rhode Island, not reported; Connecticut, rather rare.

6.—CYPRIPEDIUM ACAULE Aiton, 1789

TWO-LEAVED LADY’S SLIPPER—STEMLESS PINK MOCCASIN-FLOWER

The specific name, _acaule_, refers to the lowly and humble (acaulescent), growth of the species, since the flower is stemless, arising from a short or subterranean stem.

Sphagnous bogland, _conifer_ or mixed woodland orchid with fleshy-fibrous roots. May 19th-June 20th.

Flowers large, pink-purple, solitary, terminal, stemless. Labellum shoe-shaped, 2-2½ inches long, bi-lobed, pendulous, with closed fissure down its whole length, edges inflected, downy interiorly; pink-purple with darker veining of purple. (Rarely pure white flowers occur, with chrome yellow sepals and petals.) Sepals and petals brown-purple and green, shorter than labellum; two lower sepals wholly united. =Stem= very short, obscured by the basal leaves. =Scape= naked, 8-18 inches high, single-flowered, terminal. Few instances where two flowers or buds in embryo have occurred. =Leaves= 2, sheathing the base of peduncle, oblanceolate 3-5 nerved, hirsute and thickened; 6-8 inches long, 2-3 inches wide, resembling the leaves of _Orchis spectabilis_ Linnæus.

_Continental Range_—From Newfoundland, and Fort Franklin, in latitude 54°-64° North; southward to Lookout Mountain, Mentone, and Cullman, Alabama; westward to northern Indiana, Minnesota, and Kentucky.

_New England Range_—Maine, common; New Hampshire, common; Vermont, abundant; Massachusetts, abundant; Rhode Island, common; Connecticut, common.

Showing the structure of the pendulous and bi-lobed labellum, and the processes of the sepals and petals. The lower sepals are wholly united in this species, and less grace or undulation appears than in the Yellow Cypripediums.]

II

Orchis

Linnæus, 1753

SHOWY ORCHIS

The generic name, _Orchis_, refers to ὄρχις, the son of a rural deity of classical mythology, in whose memory these flowers were designated.

Plants with biennial roots. =Anther= 1. =Labellum= connate with base of the column; produced below into a spur. =Sepals= separate, free to the base, similar in texture to the petals. =Flowers= small, delicate white and rose-purple, fragrant; in a short terminal spike. =Anther-sacs= divergent; pollinia granulose, 1 in each anther-sac, which is attached at the base to a viscid disk or gland. =Glands= _enclosed_ in a pouch. =Stem=, scape-like, 5-angled, 4-12 inches high. =Leaves= 2, oblong-obovate, shining, basal, with several bracts above. =Roots= fleshy-fibrous or tuberous.

_Continental Range_—There are three reported species of this genus for the Continent. _Orchis_, as a genus, contains 80 or more species ranging throughout the temperate regions of Europe, Asia, Northern Africa, Canaries, and North America.

North American species 3
New England species 2
Hoosac Valley species 1

New England species:

1. _O. spectabilis_ Linnæus, 1753.
2. _O. rotundifolia_ (Pursh) Lindley, 1814-1835.

1.—ORCHIS SPECTABILIS Linnæus, 1753

SHOWY ORCHIS

The specific name, _spectabilis_, refers to the beautiful spectacle of a group of these plants in bloom.

Small, damp woodland orchid with fleshy-fibrous roots. April 19th-June 19th.

=Flowers= fragrant, about 1 inch long, violet-purple mixed with rose-purple and white; 3-6 flowered in a bracted raceme. =Labellum= divergent, attached to a spur, purple and white. =Sepals= and =petals= arching in a galea. =Glands= _enclosed_ in a pouch or hooded fold. Stem, scape-like, 4-12 inches high, thick, 5-angled. =Leaves= 2, basal with 1-2 scales below, and foliaceous bracts above sheathing the seed-capsules.

_Continental Range_—From New Brunswick, Ontario, southward to Georgia and Alabama; westward to the Rocky Mountains. Ascends 4000 feet altitude in Virginia.

_New England Range_—Maine, rare; New Hampshire, frequent; Vermont, frequent; Massachusetts, frequent; Rhode Island, rare; Connecticut, common.

The first orchis of the season, showing the hooded fold above the orifice of the spur and the processes of the flowers on the bracted scape.]

2.—ORCHIS ROTUNDIFOLIA (Pursh) Lindley, 1814-1835[68]

SMALL ROUND-LEAVED ORCHIS

The specific name, _rotundifolia_, refers to the round leaf of this species.

Small woodland or sphagnous bogland orchid with fleshy-fibrous roots. June 10th-July.

=Flowers= white, rose-purple, flecked with deeper purple, ½-⅔ inch long, subtended by bracts; =raceme= 2-6 flowered. =Labellum= 3-lobed, white, purple-spotted, longer than petals, central lobe largest, two-lobed or notched at the summit; spur slender, shorter than labellum. =Sepals= and =petals= oval, rose-color. =Glands= _enclosed_. =Stem= slender, 8-10 inches high. =Leaf= 1 near the base, orbicular or oval, 1½-3 inches long, and 1-2 inches wide, sheathing scales below.

_Continental Range_—Rare; from Greenland, southward throughout Canada, in latitude 55°-56° North in British Columbia, Rocky Mountain region to Bristol Swamps, Addison County, Vermont, and Norfolk, Connecticut (?).

_New England Range_—Maine, rare; New Hampshire, rare; Vermont, rare; Massachusetts, not reported; Rhode Island, not reported; Connecticut, doubtfully reported.

III

Habenaria

Willdenow, 1805

REIN ORCHIS—NAKED GLAND ORCHIS

The generic name, _Habenaria_, comes from _habena_, a thong or rein.

=Leafy-stemmed= plants. =Anther= 1. =Glands= _naked_. =Labellum= spreading or drooping, with a spur at base. =Sepals= and petals free, similar in structure and color. =Anther-sacs= parallel; pollinia without caudicles, powdery or granulose. =Flowers= mostly in a spiked raceme, various in colors, ornamented with spurs, fringed petals and throats. =Fragrance= delicate and exquisite in several species. =Leaves= 1-many, lanceolate, becoming bract-like above. In two species—_H. orbiculata_ (Pursh) Torrey and _H. Hookeriana_ A. Gray—the leaves are orbicular and basal, with or without bracts above. =Roots= thick, fibrous, tuberous or palmate. =Seedlings= appear numerous in many stations.

_Continental Range_—A genus containing about 450-500 species for the world, widely distributed in temperate and tropical regions in Europe, Asia, and America. There are 50-55 species on the continent of North America north of Mexico.

North American species north of Mexico 50-55
New England species 18
Hoosac Valley species 13-16

New England species:

1. _H. orbiculata_ (Pursh) Torrey, 1814-1826.
2. _H. Hookeriana_ A. Gray, 1836.
3. _H. oblongifolia_ (Paine) Niles, 1865-1903.
4. _H. obtusata_ (Pursh) Richardson, 1814-1823.
5. _H. hyperborea_ (Linnæus) R. Brown, 1767-1813.
6. _H. media_ (Rydberg) Niles, 1901-1903.
7. _H. dilatata_ (Pursh) Hooker, 1814-1825.
8. _H. fragrans_ (Rydberg) Niles, 1901-1903.
9. _H. bracteata_ (Willdenow) R. Brown, 1805-1813.
10. _H. clavellata_ (Michaux) Sprengel, 1803-1826.
11. _H. flava_ (Linnæus) A. Gray, 1753-1840.
12. _H. ciliaris_ (Linnæus) R. Brown, 1753-1813.
13. _H. blephariglottis_ (Willdenow) Torrey, 1805-1826.
14. _H. holopetala_ (Lindley) A. Gray, 1835-1867.
15. _H. lacera_ (Michaux) R. Brown, 1803-1810.
16. _H. grandiflora_ (Bigelow) Torrey, 1824-1826.
17. _H. psycodes_ (Linnæus) A. Gray, 1753-1840.
18. _H. Andrewseii_ White n. sp. (per letter, 1903).

1.—HABENARIA ORBICULATA (Pursh) Torrey, 1814-1826

LARGE ROUND-LEAVED ORCHIS—HEAL-ALL—SHIN-PLASTERS

The specific name, _orbiculata_, refers to the round or orbicular leaves of this plant.

Tall spiked woodland orchid, with thick fibrous roots. June 17th-July 15th-August 5th.

=Flowers= greenish-white, many in spiked raceme. =Labellum= oblong-linear, white, spur long. =Sepals= and =petals= ⅓ to ½ as long as labellum. Sepals spreading, petals smaller. =Stem= or scape 1-2½ feet high, _bracted_, occasionally producing one small stem-leaf. =Leaves= 2, basal, large, round, flat-lying, 4-7 inches in diameter.

_Continental Range_—Not uncommon, but scarcely abundant, from Newfoundland, British Columbia, Lake Superior, southward to the western mountains of North Carolina; westward to Montana, Idaho, and Washington.

_New England Range_—Maine, common; New Hampshire, common; Vermont, frequent; Massachusetts, occasional; Rhode Island, not reported; Connecticut, rather rare.

2.—HABENARIA HOOKERIANA A. Gray, 1836

SMALL, ROUND-LEAVED ORCHIS—HOOKER’S ORCHIS

The specific name, _Hookeriana_, refers to Sir J. Hooker, who studied this orchid and in whose honor Dr. Gray designated it.

Damp, hilly woodland orchid with fleshy-fibrous roots. June 10th-August 22d.

=Flowers= many, subtended by small bracts in spiked raceme, yellowish-green; spike 4-8 inches long. =Labellum= linear-lanceolate, acute ⅓-½ inch long. =Sepals= and =petals= greenish, spreading; petals awl-shaped ⅓ inch long. =Stem= 8-18 inches high, _not bracted_. =Leaves= 2, oval, obovate, or orbicular, slightly ascending, 3-6 inches long.

_Continental Range_—From Nova Scotia, Lake Huron, Lake Superior, southward to New Jersey and Pennsylvania, westward to Indiana, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Iowa.

_New England Range_—Maine, common; New Hampshire, frequent; Vermont, frequent; Massachusetts, occasional; Rhode Island, rare; Connecticut, rare.

3.—HABENARIA OBLONGIFOLIA (Paine) Niles, 1865-1903

SMALL OBLONG-LEAVED ORCHIS

The specific name, _oblongifolia_, refers to the oblong leaves.

Damp, hilly woodland orchid with fleshy-fibrous roots. June-August.

=Flowers= many in spiked raceme, yellowish-green similar or identical with the spike of flowers of _H. Hookeriana_. =Stem= 8-18 inches high, _not bracted_. =Leaves= 2, _oblong_, ascending.

_Continental Range_—In similar situations with _H. Hookeriana_ and _H. orbiculata_, from Nova Scotia (Macoun) Campbellton, New Brunswick, (Chalmers), Chelsea Mountains, Quebec (Fletcher’s _Flora_, Ottawa); southward to New York (Paine and Dudley), New Jersey (Mrs. Britton), and throughout New England States; westward to Iowa.

4.—HABENARIA OBTUSATA (Pursh) Richardson, 1814-1823[69]

SUB-ALPINE GREENISH BOG-ORCHIS

The specific name, _obtusata_, refers to the obtuse or blunt sepals and labellum of this species.

Small sub-alpine bogland orchid, with fibrous roots. June 22d-July 30th-September.

=Flowers=, greenish-yellow in loose spiked raceme 1-2½ inches long; flowers ¼ inch long. =Labellum= blunt or obtuse, deflexed, entire. =Lateral sepals= spreading, oblong and obtuse. =Petals= shorter, obtusely 2-lobed at base. =Stem= slender, _not bracted_, 4-10 inches high, 4-angled. =Leaf= 1, basal, obovate.

_Continental Range_—From Alaska, southward throughout Canada to Mt. Wachusett, Massachusetts; westward to Minnesota, Wyoming, Montana, and Colorado.

_New England Range_—Maine, frequent; New Hampshire, frequent; Vermont, rare; Massachusetts, very rare; Mt. Wachusett (Dr. G. E. Stone); Mt. Washington (Henry Baldwin); Rhode Island, not reported; Connecticut, not reported.

5.—HABENARIA HYPERBOREA (Linnæus) R. Brown, 1767-1813

TALL GREEN NORTHERN ORCHIS

The specific name, _hyperborea_, refers to the species being tall and a boreal or northern orchid.

Cold bogland or damp woodland orchid, with thick fleshy roots. May 30th-July 28th-August 18th.

=Flowers= small, greenish-yellow, on bracted spike 3-8 inches long; infrequent, said to be constructed for self-fertilization, if insects fail to visit the flowers. =Labellum= lanceolate, obtuse, and entire. =Sepals= and =petals= obtuse, ovate, ⅙-¼ inch long; upper sepal crenulate at apex. =Stem= tall, stout, leafy, 8 inches to 3 feet high. =Leaves= many lanceolate, acute. =Seed-capsule= much twisted.

_Continental Range_—From Greenland, Yakutat Bay and eastern part of Kadiak Island and vicinity of Sitka, Alaska, to Fort Franklin; southward to Pennsylvania and New Jersey; westward to Minnesota, Montana, Washington, New Mexico, and California. This species is closely allied with the Tall White Fragrant Bog-Orchis (_H. dilatata_). The latter, however, is not constructed for self-fertilization. Several species of _Habenaria_ appear to intergrade with each other more or less throughout their range.

_New England Range_—Maine, common; New Hampshire, frequent; Vermont, abundant; Massachusetts, infrequent; Rhode Island, not reported; Connecticut, rare.

6.—HABENARIA MEDIA (Rydberg) Niles, 1901-1903[70]

INTERMEDIATE BOG-ORCHIS

The specific name, _media_, refers to the intermediate form of this species between _H. hyperborea_ and _H. dilatata_.

A tall bogland orchid, with fleshy roots. June-August.

=Flowers= greenish-purplish, spike densely flowered; it has often been confused with _H. hyperborea_ and _H. dilatata_, which it closely resembles. Type specimen from Quebec. =Labellum= lanceolate, entire, obtuse, slightly dilated at the base; spur exceeding the labellum, curved and obtuse. =Sepals= ovate-oblong; petals lanceolate, obtuse. =Stem= 16 inches to 2½ feet high, rather stout. =Leaves= lanceolate, acute. Seed-capsule ⅖ inch long.

_Continental Range_—In bogs from Quebec, southward to New York and New England.

_New England Range_—There are no authoritative stations reported as yet, although the author collected intermediate forms of _H. hyperborea_ in Dimmick Swamp, Pownal, Vermont, July, 1903, answering to Dr. Rydberg’s descriptions of this form. It is also reported by Marcus White and A. LeRoy Andrews for Pownal Swamps.[71]

7.—HABENARIA DILATATA (Pursh) Hooker, 1814-1825

TALL WHITE NORTHERN ORCHIS

The specific name, _dilatata_, refers to the dilated condition of the labellum of this orchid.

A tall slender or stout bogland orchid, with fleshy-fibrous or tuberous roots. June 2d-August 23d.

=Flowers= white, small, in a densely flowered spike 2-10 inches long. Slightly fragrant. Not constructed for self-fertilization as the closely allied species _H. hyperborea_. =Labellum= entire, dilated, or obtusely 3-lobed at base. =Spur= blunt and incurved. =Sepals= ovate, obtuse, and small. =Stem= slender, often stout, inferring that an intermediate form exists, which Dr. Rydberg has designated specifically as _fragrans_. =Leaves= lanceolate. =Seed-capsule= much twisted.

_Continental Range_—From Ankow River, Ocean Cape, Alaska, and Unalaska in latitude 60° North; southward to Litchfield, Connecticut, Amherst, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania; westward to Minnesota, Wyoming, Colorado, also occurring in the cañons of Clear Water Valley, Idaho.

_New England Range_—Maine, common; New Hampshire, frequent; Vermont, frequent; Massachusetts, infrequent; Rhode Island, not reported; Connecticut, rare.

8.—HABENARIA FRAGRANS (Rydberg) Niles, 1901-1903[72]

FRAGRANT SLENDER BOG-ORCHIS

The specific name, _fragrans_, refers to the exquisite fragrance of this species, which is so closely allied with _H. dilatata_ and of which it appears to be a form.

Slender bogland orchid, with fleshy-fibrous roots. July.

=Flowers= small, pure white, very fragrant; in a slender spiked raceme. =Labellum= narrowly linear, dilated at the base, obtuse, shorter than the curved filiform spur; otherwise as the preceding species. =Sepals= lanceolate, acutish, strongly striate. =Stem= very slender and leafy above, 8-12 inches high. =Leaves= linear, several.

_Continental Range_—Reported from a single station in Vermont. Slender forms of _H. dilatata_, very fragrant and slightly so, are present in the bogs of Pownal, Vermont, and North Adams, Massachusetts, where the writer has collected them, believing that they were forms brought about by the intergrading of the bogland _Habenarias_ closely associated. Species of _Habenaria_ appear to produce natural hybrids readily.[73]

_New England Range_—Vermont.

9.—HABENARIA BRACTEATA (Willdenow) R. Brown, 1805-1813

LONG BRACTED ORCHIS

The specific name, _bracteata_, refers to the long bracts, subtending the seed-capsules of this species.

A slender bracted bogland orchid, with fleshy-fibrous roots. May 8th-July 14th-August 12th.

=Flowers= small, greenish, in a loosely flowered spike, 3-5 inches long, subtended by long bracts. =Labellum= long, spatulate 2-3 toothed or lobed, twice as long as sac-like spur. =Sepals= ovate-lanceolate, spreading, dilated, at base; =petals= very narrow, threadlike. =Stem= leafy, slender, or stout, 6 inches to 2 feet high. =Leaves= lanceolate, oval.

_Continental Range_—From Sitka and Unalaska to the Great Plains, approaching the Rocky Mountains in latitude 55° North; southward throughout New England to North Carolina; westward to Minnesota, North and South Dakota, and Montana.

_New England Range_—Maine, common; New Hampshire, common; Vermont, common; Massachusetts, frequent; Rhode Island, rare; Connecticut, rather rare.

10.—HABENARIA CLAVELLATA (Michaux) Sprengel, 1803-1826

SMALL YELLOWISH BOG-ORCHIS—SMALL WOOD-ORCHIS

The specific name, _clavellata_, refers to the club-shaped appendages of stigma or clavate spur attached to the flowers of this species.

A small bogland or woodland orchid, with fibrous roots. May 17th (Missouri), June (Alabama); July 15th-August (Maine).