This section is from the book "Harper's Guide To Wild Flowers", by Caroline A. Creevey. Also available from Amazon: Harper's Guide To Wild Flowers.
Family, Orchis. Color, brownish purple in lip, sepals, and petals. The latter very narrow, thread - like.
Sepals, slightly turned back. Lip, large for the flower, broad, nearly 1/2 inch long. Leaves, 2, at the base of the flower-stem,
2 to 5 inches long, oval or ovate, clasping the stem with large, loose sheaths. Flowers, few or many, scattered, in terminal racemes, on slender pedicels. Scape, 4 to 10 inches high.
Low herbs from solid bulbs, with scales on the scape besides the 2 large leaves. Leaves, shining, green. Rich, moist woods, Maine to Georgia and westward.
Family, Orchis. Color, variegated. (See p. 372.)
Family, Orchis. Color, greenish, tinged with purple. (See Green Flowers, p. 24.)
 
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