In late summer the dark, rich flowers of the wild bean are found in short, thick clusters among the luxuriant undergrowth and thickets of low ground. The plant is a climber, bearing edible pear-shaped tubers on underground shoots, which give it its generic name signifying a pear.

Coral-root.
Corallorhiza multiflora. Orchis Family (p. [17]).

Rootstock.—Much branched, coral-like, toothed. Stem.—Nine to eighteen inches high, without green foliage. Flowers.—Rather small, dull brownish-purple or yellowish, sometimes mottled with red; growing in a raceme.

In the dry summer woods one frequently encounters the dull racemes of this rather inconspicuous little plant. It is often found in the immediate neighborhood of the Indian pipe and pine sap. Being, like them, without green foliage, it might be taken for an allied species by the casual observer. This is one of those orchids which are popularly considered unworthy to bear the name, giving rise to so much incredulity or disappointment in the unbotanical.

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