ORCHID FAMILY 459 



ovuled ovary. — Ponds and ditches in the north and east of 

 England; rare. The plant rises to the surface before flowering 

 and then sinks to the bottom. (Name from the Greek stratiotes, 

 a soldier, from the sword-like leaves.) — Fl. June — August. 

 Perennial. 



STRATIOTES ALofoES {Water Soldicr). 



Ord. LXXVIII. Orchide^. — The Orchid Family 



A very extensive and most interesting Order of perennial 

 herbaceous plants. They are to be found in all climates except 

 the very coldest and driest ; but are most abundant in hot, damp, 

 equatorial regions, where they exist in the greatest profusion, not, 

 as in temperate climates, deriving their nourishment from the 

 earth, but from the moisture in the air. These epiphytes^ as they 

 are termed, cling to the trunks and branches of trees, to the stems 

 of large ferns, or to the bare rock. In many of them the large 



