alternate, clustered in thick, dense spikes from 3 to 15 in. long. Upper
sepal and toothed petals erect; the lip of deepest shade, 1/2 in. long,
fan-shaped, 3-parted, fringed half its length, and prolonged at base
into slender, long spur; stamen united with style into short column; 2
anther sacs slightly divergent, the hollow between them glutinous,
stigmatic. _Stem:_ 1 to 5 ft. high, angled, twisted. _Leaves:_ Oval,
large, sheathing the stem below; smaller, lance-shaped ones higher up
bracts above. _Root:_ Thick, fibrous.

_Preferred Habitat_--Rich, moist meadows, muddy places, woods.

_Flowering Season_--June-August.

_Distribution_--New Brunswick to Ontario; southward to North Carolina,
westward to Michigan.

Because of the singular and exquisitely unerring adaptations of orchids
as a family to their insect visitors, no group of plants has greater
interest for the botanist since Darwin interpreted their marvellous
mechanism, and Gray, his instant disciple, revealed the hidden purposes
of our native American species, no less wonderfully constructed than the
most costly exotic in a millionaire's hothouse.

A glance at the spur of this orchid, one of the handsomest and most
striking of its clan, and the heavy perfume of the flower, would seem to
indicate that only a moth with a long proboscis could reach the nectar
secreted at the base of the thread-like passage. Butterflies, attracted
by the conspicuous color, sometimes hover about the showy spikes of
bloom, but it is probable that, to secure a sip, all but possibly the
very largest of them must go to the smaller Purple-fringed Orchis, whose