THE PLANT WOELD 28 



ORCHIDS IN CENTRAL PARK. 



By Pauline Kaufman. 



ON entering tlie greenhouse in Central Park where the orchids 

 hixuriate, those wonderful tropical enigmas appearing not merely 

 like flowers, but like creatures endowed with a higher life, a 

 wonderful sight meets the eye. The illusion that the flowers are 

 l)irds, bees or butterflies, is here fostered with care. Over the green 

 arches, between the leaves, they peep out at us, and almost compel the 

 belief that they will emerge from their hiding-places and flutter away. 



A gleam of gold and purple reveals the well-knoTVTi Caftleya Trl- 

 anae, but even lovelier is the Cattlei/a citrina, in which a soft, pale yel- 

 low coloring predominates. More modest in plumage, and less aerial 

 in habit are the Cypripedieae, particularly C. hisigne, with its brownish- 

 green mottled flowers, C. Harrmana, with dull maroon flowers, and the 

 less familiar native of Malacca, C. barbafnm, whose oblong leaves are 

 light green with irregular markings of a darker shade, varying greatly 

 in different plants. The dorsal sepal of the solitary flower is large and 

 broad, the upper part pure white, the lower flecked with purple. The 

 petals, similar in color, are ornamented with several tufts of black 

 hairs, while the lip is large and purplish-black. In C. Spicerianum, a 

 near neighbor, the pure white upper sepal is divided by a purple line, 

 the greenish lateral sepals being similarly marked. The shining, green- 

 ish lip is much inflated, the top of the white column spotted mth violet. 



The species of Oiicidiion (from the Greek word for a tumor, refer- 

 ring to the warty crest on the base of the labellum) show remarkable 

 variation as regards size, form and color of the flowers, in which yellow 

 usually predominates. From an altitude of from 12,000 to 14,000 feet 

 in tropical latitudes, where at all times the atmosphere is cool and 

 moist, and frost is frequent, many of our Oncidiums are obtained. The 

 most beautiful representative of the genus is 0. Papilio, the butterfly 

 plant from Trinidad. The lip, with its yellow centre and red-bro■s\^l 

 border, resembles the body of the insect, the horizontal and similarly 

 colored petals are the wings, and the long, narrow, erect reddish sepals 

 form the antennae and palpi. The likeness is truly startling. In re- 

 moving this orchid from a vase, I was surprised to find that the sejials 

 cling to and encircle every object with which they come in contact. 0. 

 ornifhorJu/nchum, in spite of the overpowering name (which means hav- 

 ing the wings of a bird), is the very embodiment of grace. Its branch- 

 ing scapes are produced in great abundance, and are laden with droop- 

 ing panicles of small but lovely rose-pink blossoms ha\'ing the perfume 

 of heliotrope. 0. vrtricosum, with its flat, lobed, bright yellow Lip, and 

 its sepals and petals of pale dull green bearded with brown, seems to 



