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White Orchis

Habenaria dilatata. Orchis Family.

Stem.--Slender; leafy. Leaves.--Long and narrow. Flowers.--Small; white; with an incurved spur; growing in a slender spike.

The mention of the northern white orchis recalls to my mind one midsummer morning in a New England swamp, where tangles of sheep laurel barred the way, branches of dogwood and azalea snapped into one's eyes, while patches of fragrant adders' mouths and fragile Calopogons just escaped being trodden underfoot, and exacted, by way of compensation, a breathless but delighted homage at their lovely shrines. Among tall-growing ferns, springing from elastic beds of moss, here I first found the slender, fragrant wands of this pretty orchid.