Purple Fringed Orchises.
Orchis Family (p. [17]).
Habenaria fimbriata.
Leaves.—Oval or oblong; the upper, few, passing into lance-shaped bracts. Flowers.—Purple, rather large; with a fan-shaped, three-parted lip, its divisions fringed; with a long curving spur; growing in a spike.
Habenaria psycodes.
Leaves.—Oblong or lance-shaped, the upper passing into linear bracts. Flowers.—Purple, fragrant, resembling those of H. fimbriata, but much smaller, with a less fringed lip; growing in a spike.
We should search the wet meadows in early June if we wish to be surely in time for the larger of the purple fringed orchises, for H. fimbriata somewhat antedates H. psycodes, which is the commoner species of the two and appears in July. Under date of June 9th, Thoreau writes: “Find the great fringed orchis out apparently two or three days, two are almost fully out, two or three only budded; a large spike of peculiarly delicate, pale purple flowers growing in the luxuriant and shady swamp, amid hellebores, ferns, golden senecio, etc.... The village belle never sees this more delicate belle of the swamp.... A beauty reared in the shade of a convent, who has never strayed beyond the convent-bell. Only the skunk or owl, or other inhabitant of the swamp, beholds it.”
American Pennyroyal.
Hedeoma pulegioides. Mint Family (p. [16]).
Stem.—Square, low, erect, branching Leaves.—Opposite, aromatic, small. Flowers.—Purplish, small, whorled in the axils of the leaves. Calyx.—Two-lipped, upper lip three-toothed, the lower two-cleft. Corolla.—Two-lipped, upper erect, notched at apex, the lower spreading and three-cleft. Fertile stamens.—Two. Pistil.—One, with a two-lobed style.
This well-known, strong-scented little plant is found throughout the greater part of the country, blossoming in midsummer. Its taste and odor nearly resemble that of the true pennyroyal, Mentha pulegium, of Europe.