And warm her rosy glow,
writes Elaine Goodale of the moccason-flower. This is a blossom whose charm never wanes. It seems to be touched with the spirit of the deep woods, and there is a certain fitness in its Indian name, for it looks as though it came direct from the home of the red man. All who have found it in its secluded haunts will sympathize with Mr. Higginson’s feeling that each specimen is a rarity, even though he should find a hundred to an acre. Gray assigns it to “dry or moist woods,” while Mr. Baldwin writes: “The finest specimens I ever saw sprang out of cushions of crisp reindeer moss high up among the rocks of an exposed hill-side, and again I have found it growing vigorously in almost open swamps, but nearly colorless from excessive moisture.” The same writer quotes a lady who is familiar with it in the Adirondacks. She says: “It seems to have a great fondness for decaying wood, and I often see a whole row perched like birds along a crumbling log.” While I recall a mountain lake where the steep cliffs rise from the water’s edge, here and there, on a tiny shelf strewn with pine-needles, can be seen a pair of large veiny leaves, above which, in early June, the pink balloon-like blossom floats from its slender scape.
PLATE LXIV
PINK LADY’S SLIPPER.—C. acaule.
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Calopogon pulchellus. Orchis Family (p. [17]).
Scape.—Rising about one foot from a small solid bulb. Leaf.—Linear, grass-like. Flowers.—Two to six on each scape, purple-pink, about one inch broad, the lip as if hinged at its insertion, bearded toward the summit with white, yellow, and purple hairs. The peculiarity of this orchid is that the ovary is not twisted, and consequently the lip is on the upper instead of the lower side of the flower.
One may hope to find these bright flowers growing side by side with the glistening sundew in the rich bogs of early summer. Mr. Baldwin assigns still another constant companion to the Calopogon, an orchid which staggers under the terrifying title of Pogonia ophioglossoides. The generic name of Calopogon is from two Greek words signifying beautiful beard and has reference to the delicately bearded lip.
Pink Azalea. Wild Honeysuckle. Pinxter Flower. Swamp Pink.
Rhododendron nudiflorum. Heath Family.
A shrub from two to six feet high. Leaves.—Narrowly oblong, downy underneath, usually appearing somewhat later than the flowers. Flowers.—Pink, clustered. Calyx.—Minute. Corolla.—Funnel-shaped, with five long recurved lobes. Stamens.—Five or ten, long, protruding noticeably. Pistil.—One, long, protruding.
Our May swamps and moist woods are made rosy by masses of the pink azalea which is often known as the wild honeysuckle, although not even a member of the Honeysuckle family. It is in the height of its beauty before the blooming of the laurel, and heralds the still lovelier pageant which is even then in rapid course of preparation.