My basket was now laden with choice species, including those of the Ram’s-Head, the Showy Orchis, and two species of Habenaria, a sister genus of _Orchis spectabilis_. The locality had proven a treasure-ground to me, for here were both the Great and the Small Round-Leaved Orchis (_Habenaria orbiculata_ and _Habenaria Hookeriana_); while the Tall Green Orchis (_Habenaria hyperborea_) dwells in the deeper bogs along the stream. The leaves of the Purple-Fringed Orchis (_Habenaria grandiflora_) are hidden in the borders of the open meadow. I found a few plants of that very rare orchid called Adder’s-Mouth (_Achroanthes unifolia_) seldom if ever before collected in this town. The plants are so small and inconspicuous that one may search long without seeing them. Two stood among the select company of Ram’s-Heads, while others grew along a damp, silent brook bed that had ceased to flow,—a ravine formed during spring freshets and melting snows. [Illustration: =The Showy Orchis.= (_Orchis spectabilis._) Showing the plant nearly natural size. This species is closely allied with the Early Spring Orchis (_Orchis mascula_) of England. It is the most highly organized of our native orchids.] This pigmy of the Orchid Family—with its pale and odorless flower and its unassuming habit of concealing itself in the darkest recesses of our forests and swamps—grows plentifully in its native haunts to the north. I had searched long and closely for the last month, hoping to find the Large Purple-Fringed Orchis. Thoreau says: “It is remarkable that this, one of the fairest of all our flowers, should also be one of the rarest—for the most part not seen at all.... The village belle never sees this more delicate belle of the swamp.... A beauty reared in the shade of a convent, who has never strayed beyond the convent bell. Only the skunk or the owl, or other inhabitant of the swamp, beholds it.”[33] The Yellow-Fringed Orchis follows later, blooming through August and September,—the blossoming season of the flaming Cardinal-Flower, whose brilliant coloring brightens the dark shades along streams in moist woods. The Yellow-Fringed Habenarias are found growing with the Pitcher Plant, and often fill the sphagnous swamps with a glowing mass of orange-flamed torches. Gray considered them among our handsomest species of Habenaria. They are abundant in swamps about New Haven, Connecticut, while the White-Fringed Orchises seek the coast-lines of Massachusetts, although also found sparingly in the highlands. Species of Habenaria are called False Orchises, while species of Orchis are known as True Orchises. These species are members of sister genera, but all belong to the Orchid Family. There are but three True Orchises found on the continent north of Mexico, while not less than forty-four species of Habenaria are reported for the same area.