Certainly the commonest trillium in the East, although it thrives as far westward as Ontario and Missouri, and south to Georgia, is the NODDING WAKE-ROBIN (T.cernuum), whose white or pinkish flower droops from its peduncle until it is all but hidden under the whorl of broadly rhombic, tapering leaves.The wavy margined petals, about as long as the sepals - that is to say, half an inch long or over - curve backward at maturity.According to Miss Carter, who studied the flower in the Botanical Garden at South Hadley, Mass., it is slightly proterandrous, maturing its anthers first, but with a chance of spontaneous self-pollination by the stigmas recurving to meet the shorter stamens.She saw bumblebees visiting it for nectar.In late summer an egg-shaped, pendulous red-purple berry swings from the summit.One finds the plant in bloom from April to June, according to the climate of its long range, Perhaps the most strikingly beautiful member of the tribe is the PAINTED TRILLIUM (T.undulatum; T.erythrocarpum of Gray).At the summit of the slender stem, rising perhaps only eight inches, or maybe twice as high, this charming flower spreads its long, wavy-edged, waxy-white petals veined and striped with deep pink or wine color.The large ovate leaves, long-tapering to a point, are rounded at the base into short petioles.The rounded, three-angled, bright red, shining berry is seated in the persistent calyx.With the same range as the nodding trillium's, the painted wake-robin comes into bloom nearly a month later - in May and June - when all the birds are not only wide awake, but have finished courting, and are busily engaged in the most serious business of life.
SHOWY LADY'S SLIPPER
(Cypripedium reginae; C.spectabile of Gray) Orchid family Flowers - Usually solitary, at summit of stem, white, or the inflated white lip painted with purplish pink and white stripes;sepals rounded oval, spreading, white, not longer than the lip;petals narrower, white; the broad sac-shaped pouch open in front, 1 in.long or over.Stem: Stout, leafy, 1 to 2 ft.high.Leaves:
3 to 8 in.long, downy, elliptic, pointed, many ribbed.
Preferred Habitat - Peat-bogs; rich, low, wet woods.
Flowering Season - June-September.
Distribution - Nova Scotia to Georgia, westward to the Mississippi.Chiefly North.
Quite different from the showy orchis, is this far more chaste showy lady's slipper which Dr.Gray has called "the most beautiful of the genus." Because the plants live in inaccessible swampy places, where only the most zealous flower lover penetrates, they have a reputation for rarity at which one who knows a dozen places to find colonies of the stately exquisites during a morning's walk, must smile with superiority.Wine appears to overflow the large white cup and trickle down its sides.Sometimes unstained, pure white chalices are found.C.
album is the name by which the plant is known in England.See note after Common Daisy.
LARGE ROUND-LEAVED or GREATER GREEN ORCHIS(Habenaria orbiculata) Orchid family Flowers - Greenish white, in a loosely set spike; the upper sepal short, rounded; side ones spreading; petals smaller, arching; the lip long, narrow, drooping, white, prolonged into a spur often 11/2 in.long, curved and enlarged at base; anther sacs prominent, converging.Scape: 1 to 2 ft.high.Leaves: 2, spreading flat on ground, glossy above, silvery underneath, parallel-veined, slightly longer than wide, very large, from 4 to 7 in.across.
Preferred Habitat - Rich, moist woods in mountainous regions, especially near evergreens.
Flowering Season - July-August.
Distribution - From British Columbia to the Atlantic; eastern half of the United States southward to the Carolinas.
Wonderfully interesting structure and the comparative rarity of this orchid, rather than superficial beauty, are responsible for the thrill of pleasure one experiences at the sight of the spike of unpretentious flowers.Two great leaves, sometimes as large as dinner plates, attract the eye to where they glisten on the ground.The spur of the blossom, the nectary, "implies a welcome to a tongue two inches long, and will reward none other," says William Hamilton Gibson."This clearly shuts out the bees, butterflies, and smaller moths.What insect, then, is here implied? The sphinx moth, one of the lesser of the group.Alarger individual might sip the nectar, it is true, but its longer tongue would reach the base of the tube without effecting the slightest contact with the pollen, which is, of course, the desideratum." How the moth, in sipping the nectar, thrusts his head against the sticky buttons to which the pollen messes are attached, and, in trying to release himself, loosens them; how he flies off with these little clubs sticking to his eyes; how they automatically adjust themselves to the attitude where they will come in contact with the stigma of the next flower visited, and so cross-fertilize it, has been told in the account of the great purple-fringed orchis of similar construction.To that species the interested reader is, therefore, referred; or, better still, to the luminous description by Dr.Asa Gray.
WHITE-FRINGED ORCHIS
(Habenaria blephariglottis) Orchid family Flowers - Pure white, fragrant, borne on a spike from 3 to 6 in.
long.Spur long, slender; oval sepals; smaller petals toothed;the oblong lip deeply fringed.Stem: Slender, 1 to 2 ft.high.
Leaves: Lance-shaped, parallel-veined, clasping the stem; upper ones smallest.
Preferred Habitat - Peat-bogs and swamps.
Flowering Season - July-August.
Distribution - Northeastern United States and eastern Canada to Newfoundland.