_Habenaria blephariglottis_
_Flowers_--Pure white, fragrant, borne on a spike from 3 to 6 in. long.
Spur long, slender; oval sepals; smaller petal toothed; the oblong lip
deeply fringed. _Stem:_ Slender, 1 to 2 ft. high. _Leaves:_
Lance-shaped, parallel-veined, clasping the stem; upper ones smallest.
_Preferred Habitat_--Peat-bogs and swamps.
_Flowering Season_--July-August.
_Distribution_--Northeastern United States and eastern Canada to
Newfoundland.
One who selfishly imagines that all the floral beauty of the earth was
created for man’s sole delight will wonder why a flower so exquisitely
beautiful as this dainty little orchid should be hidden in inaccessible
peat-bogs, where overshoes and tempers get lost with deplorable
frequency, and the water-snake and bittern mock at man’s intrusion of
their realm by the ease with which they move away from him. Not for man,
but for the bee, the moth, and the butterfly, are orchids where they are
and what they are.