REIN-ORCHIS.
Habenaria elegans, Bolander. Orchis Family.
Root.—An oblong tuber. Stem.—Rather slender; a foot or two high. Leaves.—Two; radical; oblong; three to six inches long; eighteen lines to two inches wide. Flowers.—Small; light green; in a dense but slender spike. Sepals and petals about equal; two lines long; obtuse. Lip.—Similar, with a filiform spur three to five lines long. (Otherwise like H. leucostachys.) Hab.—Near the coast, from Monterey to Vancouver Island.
In early summer the fragrant spikes of the rein-orchis stand half-concealed under the trees and along the banks bordering wooded mountain roads. The little greenish flowers are inconspicuous, and reveal themselves only to those who have the habit of observation. Early in the spring the rather large lily-like leaves were far more noticeable and handsome; but they seemed to weary of waiting for the tardy arrival of the blossoms, and faded away long since. The little flowers are very deliberate about unfolding themselves; and I have sometimes watched them when they seemed for weeks at a standstill before yielding to the summer's invitation to come forth.
They are arranged in a three-sided spike, on two sides of which the long spurs interlace and cross one another in quite a warlike manner.
![[REIN-ORCHIS—Habenaria elegans.]](#3624944100741987669_f149.png.id-2883762563503197059.wrap-0.html.html){kind=link}