In time its equally useless leaves
dwindle to bracts, or disappear. Nature wastes no energy. Fungi,
for example, are both parasites and saprophytes; and so when
plants far higher up in the evolutionary scale than they lose
leaves and green color too, we may know they are degenerates
belonging to that disreputable gang of branded sinners which
includes the Indian-pipe, broom-rape, dodder, pine-sap, and
beech-drops. Others, like the gerardias and foxgloves, may even
now be detected on the brink of a fall from grace.
The EARLY CORAL-ROOT (C. Corallorhiza; C. innata of Gray)
- a similar but smaller species, whose loose spike of dull
purplish flowers likewise terminates a scaly purplish or
yellowish scape arising from a mass of short, thick, whitish,
fleshy, blunt fibers, may be found in the moist woods blooming in
May or June. It has a more northerly range, however, extending
from the mountains of Georgia, it is true, but chiefly from the
northern boundary of the United States, from New England westward
to the State of Washington, and northward to Nova Scotia and
Alaska.
Pages:
845
846
847
848
849
850
851
852
853
854
855
856
857
858
859
860
861
862
863
864
865
866
867
868
869