THE ORCHIDS OF NEW ENGLAND. 



55 



column, which is petal-like, dilated at the apex, and adherent to 

 the bearded lip below. The anther is lid-like, terminal, decidu- 

 ous, of two approximate cells, each containing 2 powdery -gran- 

 ular pollen-masses." This lid-like, deciduous anther is, with 

 one exception, characteristic of all the members of the tribe. 

 In A. bulbosa, says Gray, " the 4 loose and soft pellets lie in an 

 inverted casque-shaped case, hinged at the back, resting on a 

 shelf, the lower face of which is a glutinous stigma, over the 

 front edge of which the casque-shaped anther slightly projects." 

 At the bottom of the cup formed by the united sepals and 

 petals there is a slight secretion, and the yellow beard on the 

 lip either acts as a guide to this concealed nectar, or is an addi- 

 tional attraction. " The an- 

 ther is raised by the head of 

 a bee when creeping out of 

 the gorge of the flower. The 

 loose pellets are caught upon 

 the bee's head, to the rough 

 surface of which they are 

 liable to adhere lightly, and 

 so to be carried to the flower 

 of another individual, there 

 to be left upon its glut- 

 inous stigma by the same 

 upward movement which im- 

 mediately afterward raises 

 the anther lid and carries 

 away its pollen to be trans- 

 ferred to a third flower, and 

 so on. The scape rises from 

 a globular, solid bulb, and 

 the leaf is solitary, linear, 

 hidden in the sheaths of the scape, protruding from the upper- 

 most after flowering." 



Fig. 15. Whorled Pogonia. 

 P. verticillata. 



