THE WILD ORCHID 



growth begins, the new stem slowly uprights 

 itself, and from the top of the tuber new slender 

 roots are formed which eventually fix the tuber in 

 its position. Thus, each season the orchis exploits 

 new ground, and the stem, therefore, begins 

 to grow under the most favourable conditions ; 

 indeed, the plant has in this manner accomplished 

 by its own device what is equivalent to a '' rotation 

 of crops," the importance of which the farmer 

 fully knows. 



This well-arranged root scheme, then, not only 

 provides the plant with water and mineral sub- 

 stances, but also serves to protect it from frost and 

 animal attacks ; supplies it with a storehouse of 

 food material for early growth the following 

 season, and w^ithal moves the plant each year into 

 new quarters. With purposes so perfectly arranged 

 for at the foundation, we might naturally anticipate 

 other complex structures as the outcome of such 

 adaptations ; and we are not disappointed. 



When the spring sunlight begins to make its 

 power felt, the shoot at the summit of the tuber 

 pushes through the soil and quickly unfolds its 

 quaint, lance-shaped leaves. Many are the half 

 hours during which I have puzzled over those leaves. 

 Striking and mysterious are they in the extreme. 

 They are smooth, glossy, deep olive green, and 

 spotted with stripes and dots of a dark brown 

 pigment ; and it is these curious brown markings 

 that make them so mysterious. Their function 

 has always been an insoluble problem ; un- 

 doubtedly these conspicuous spots have a definite 



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