_Orchis spectabilis_
_Flowers_--Purplish pink, of deeper and lighter shade, the lower lip
white, and thick of texture; from 3 to 6 on a spike; fragrant. Sepals
pointed, united, arching above the converging petals, and resembling a
hood; lip large, spreading, prolonged into a spur, which is largest at
the tip and as long as the twisted footstem. _Stem:_ 4 to 12 in. high,
thick, fleshy, 5-sided. _Leaves:_ 2, large, broadly ovate, glossy green,
silvery on underside, rising from a few scales from root. _Fruit:_ A
sharply angled capsule, 1 in. long.
_Preferred Habitat_--Rich, moist woods, especially under hemlocks.
_Flowering Season_--April-June.
_Distribution_--From New Brunswick and Ontario southward to our Southern
states, westward to Nebraska.
Of the six floral leaves which every orchid, terrestrial or aerial,
possesses, one is always peculiar in form, pouch-shaped, or a cornucopia
filled with nectar, or a flaunted, fringed banner, or a broad platform
for the insect visitors to alight on. Some orchids look to imaginative
eyes as if they were masquerading in the disguise of bees, moths, frogs,
birds, butterflies. A number of these queer freaks are to be found in
Europe. Spring traps, adhesive plasters, and hair-triggers attached to
explosive shells of pollen are among the many devices by which orchids
compel insects to cross-fertilize them, these flowers as a family
showing the most marvellous mechanism adapted to their requirements from
insects in the whole floral kingdom. No other blossoms can so well
afford to wear magenta, the ugliest shade nature produces, the “lovely
rosy purple” of Dutch bulb growers.