Family

Orchis.

Colour

Purplish pink.

Odour

Fragrant.

Range

New York to Georgia and westward.

Time of Bloom

April, May.

Flowers: growing loosely in a terminal spike. The sepals and petals united and forming a sort of crimson purple hood. The lip white and projecting backward into a short spur. Leaves: two; large, from the base of the scape; ovate; shiny.

When the air is soft and sweet in the early spring woods and, looking first to one side and then to the other, we follow some shaded pathway; it may be that we shall find a number of the showy orchids. They are not, however, showy as the name would have us believe but very quaint and pretty. The blossoms have queer little expressive faces, and we feel like making friends with them at once and not standing on ceremony as would be most natural with many of the more pretentious members of their family.