Stems.—Smooth and trailing. Leaves.—Rounded, evergreen, veined with white. Flowers.—White, fragrant, in pairs. Calyx.—Four-toothed. Corolla.—Funnel-form, with four spreading lobes, bearded within. Stamens.—Four. Pistil.—One, its ovary united with that of its sister flower, its four stigmas linear.
At all times of the year this little plant faithfully fulfils its mission of adorning that small portion of the earth to which it finds itself rooted. But only the early summer finds the partridge vine exhaling its delicious fragrance from the delicate sister-blossoms which are its glory. Among the waxy flowers will be found as many of the bright red berries of the previous year as have been left unmolested by the hungry winter birds. This plant is found not only in the moist woods of North America, but also in the forests of Mexico and Japan. It is a near relative of the dainty bluets or Quaker ladies, and has the same peculiarity of dimorphous flowers (p. [232]).
PLATE XXIII
PARTRIDGE VINE.—M. repens.
Green Orchis.
Habenaria virescens.
Ragged Fringed Orchis.
Habenaria lacera. Orchis Family (p. [17]).
Leaves.—Oblong or lance-shaped. Flowers.—Greenish or yellowish-white, growing in a spike.
These two orchids are found in wet boggy places during the earlier summer, the green antedating the ragged fringed orchis by a week or more. The lip of the ragged fringed is three-parted, the divisions being deeply fringed, giving what is called in Sweet’s “British Flower-Garden” an “elegantly jagged appearance.” The lip of the green orchis is furnished with a tooth on each side and a strong protuberance in the middle. So far as superficial beauty and conspicuousness are concerned these flowers do scant justice to the brilliant family to which they belong, and equally excite the scornful exclamation, “You call that an orchid!” when brought home for analysis or preservation.
Button-bush.
Cephalanthus occidentalis. Madder Family.
A shrub three to eight feet high. Leaves.—Opposite or whorled in threes, somewhat oblong and pointed. Flowers.—Small, white, closely crowded in round button-like heads. Calyx.—Four-toothed. Corolla.—Four-toothed. Stamens.—Four. Pistil.—One, with a thread-like protruding style and blunt stigma.