THE FAMILIES OF FLOWERING PLANTS. 8g 



species, and Niittall says of O. piisillum, "seldom more than one inch 

 in height." Professor L. M. Underwood has also collected O. cro- 

 talophoroides {O. biUbosuni) as small as this, though it often reaches 

 four to six inches in size, and always has a larger cordate leaf, which 

 with its'bulbose root-stock are its most marked characteristics. Its 

 earliest name, O. crotalophoroides, Walt. 1788, refers to the shape of 

 the fertile spike, which suggests the rattles of a rattlesnake. 



Another new species described by me in the December Bulletin 

 is O. Alaskanuvi, collected on Unalaska Island by Turner. It be- 

 longs to the group of Ophioglossnin reticulatuin^ a species which has 

 not thus far been found north of Mexico; it has the frond cordate or 

 reniform at base, and is usually ovate in shape, though the figures 

 given by Presl show also a tapering base like the haft of a trowel. 

 The specimens from Alaska evidently belong to this group, though 

 the plants are not as tall, and the fronds are thinner, and neither cor- 

 date nor reniform, usually longer than broad, whereas in O. reticula- 

 tiim they are oftener the reverse. In the accompanying illustrations 

 the artist has unfortunately exaggerated the indentations below the 

 apex, which do not occur in all the specimens of O. Alaskanum, but 

 he has correctly indicated the difference between this species and 

 O. reticiilatum. 



THE FAMILIES OF FLOWERING PLANTS. 



By Charles Louis Pollard. 



VI. FROM IRIS TO ORCHID. 



WHEN this issue of the Plant World appears, the bulbs that 

 were planted last fall in gardens and parks will be pushing 

 their green shoots out of the ground, full of promise for 

 the gorgeous display that is to come later on. Of this 

 brilliant assemblage the Iridaceas, or Iris family, will claim our first 

 attention, since the Crocus, which is one of its prominent representa- 

 tives, is often the earliest of spring flowers. 



The Iridaceae is a large family, with about sixty genera and over 

 1,000 species, widely distributed over the warmer parts of the globe. 

 They shun the cold, and in our temperate climate we have besides 

 the Iris only three small genera. On the other hand a large propor- 

 tion flourish at the Cape of Good Hope, and many of them are en- 

 demic there. This fact is so well known to horticulturists that the 

 term "Cape bulbs " is as ordinary a commercial term as " Dutch 

 bulbs," which we found to include the hyacinth, tulip and Narcissus. 



