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Ragged Fringed Orchis

Habenaria lacera. Orchis Family.

Leaves.--Oblong or lance-shaped. Flowers.--Greenish or yellowish-white; growing in a spike.

These two orchids are found in wet boggy places during the earlier summer, the green antedating the ragged fringed orchis by a week or more. The lip of the ragged fringed is three-parted, the divisions being deeply fringed, giving what is called in Sweet's "British Flower-Garden" an "elegantly jagged appearance." The lip of the green orchis is furnished with a tooth on each side and a strong protuberance in the middle. So far as superficial beauty and conspicuousness are concerned these flowers do scant justice to the brilliant family to which they belong, and equally excite the scornful exclamation, "You call that an orchid!" when brought home for analysis or preservation.