Fig. 227
Its building plan would almost serve for a wayside tavern. You can see that the pocket would answer as a front doorstep, making a convenient landing place for bee or butterfly.
The dark spots on the upper flower leaf point downward to the refreshment room.
Even more curious than this one are other orchids which grow in far-away places.
In their efforts to please, they wear the most striking colors, and take on a variety of fantastic shapes.
One of them dresses itself much like a bee. In this way perhaps it secures a visit from the real bee.
Another is called the baby orchid, because in the center of each flower is an object which really looks like a fairy baby.
There are some ten or twelve orchids which are common in our Northern woods. I hope you children will keep on the lookout for them all summer.
Just now you could not tell whether or not a flower was an orchid. But if you come across a plant whose flowers look as though they were built to serve as wayside taverns for the bees, why, carry them to your teacher, and ask her to find out for you whether they belong to the Orchid family.
But it is only fair to tell you that some of our orchids bear flowers so small and insignificant that you would hardly guess them to be members of so distinguished a family.