48 Corallorhiza hiemalis.
aridness for which it is remarkable. The colour is a whitish-green,
and the apex, which is acute, is often sphacelated. Grows on decayed
vegetable soil, in shaded woods, and on the sides of fertile hills, from the
middle to the southern states; not common. In the vicinity of this city
it is found above the Falls of Schuylkill. Flowering time May, at
which time the leaf does not appear.
Among the Orchidean plants of the United States there are few more
handsome than the present species of Mr. Brown’s genus Corallorhiza.
The singularity of its hiemal habit in the foliage, and the structure of
the root, and other circumstances attending that part, have not failed
to attract the notice of the vulgar, who have attached great virtue
to it; and by them the plant is commonly called Adam and Eve. Pursh
states, that the bruised root mixed with water makes a strong cement,
by which broken china and glass may be durably united.
Fig. 1. Represents the top of the plant in flower, separated at the
mark * from fig. 2, which is the lower portion and root.
3. The outline of the leaf.
4. The column and lower lip, divested of the petals.
(All the size of nature.)