88 NATIVE BRITISH ORCHIDACE^ 



to the stem (forming a thick ridge), so that the ovary is sessile (except sometimes in 

 two or three of the lowest flowers) and applied to the stem by its side. Sepals 

 oblong, broadest at base, slightly tapering, obtuse, with a faint green nerve, ciliate 

 or minutely toothed, slightly glandular-hairy outside, white and crystalline under a 

 lens, the lateral spreading, the upper inclined downwards over the lip. Petals strap- 

 shaped, obtuse, i-nerved, adhering to the slightly longer upper sepal, together 

 forming an upper lip to the flower, with recurved tips. Labellum oblong, trough- 

 like, enlarged, rounded and turned down at the tip, forming a trumpet-like tube with 

 the united upper sepal and petals, light green with a broad white crystalline jagged 

 edge, closely embracing the column at the base, where there are two white glistening 

 rounded honey-secreting glands, each with a ring of papillae round the base, and a 

 shallow receptacle below. Column obconical, horizontal, green, tapering to an acute 

 point (rostellum). Stigma on under-surface of column, slanting gently upwards, 

 shield-shaped, rounded and fringed with white hairs below, with a short point at 

 each upper corner, and in the middle of the upper edge the rostellum, a brown or 

 greyish linear viscid gland supported between two rather long very narrow teeth, 

 left behind hke the prongs of a fork when the viscidium is removed, and soon 

 withering. A membrane extends backwards from the edge of the stigma over the 

 back of the anther, forming a clinandrium or shelter for the pollinia. Anther sessile, 

 resting face downwards on upper side of column, ovate- 

 acute, already brown and shrunken when the flower 

 opens, with a dark line down the centre. In bud the 

 anther is green and covers the pollinia, which are cream- 

 coloured, long, narrow, tapering from a rounded base 

 to an acute apex projecting well beyond the shrunken 

 anther, and attached to the back of the viscidium. Ac- 

 cording to Darwin each consists of two leaves of pollen, 

 free at the ends but united in the middle by elastic 

 threads {Fert. Orch. p. 109). Each leaf consists of a 

 double layer of pollen-grains joined together in fours, 

 and is very brittle, large fragments breaking off and ad- Text-fig. 9. spiranthesautummiis. a. 

 hering to the stigma on contact. Usually there are only Section of young root. //. Steie. c. 



° Cortex, r. Root-cap. B. Plant, early 



two roots, whose thickness suggests analogy with the November, S. France. 1^. Rosette of 



tubers of Orchis, but the development of two young J— ':^S ^:^: J^. 

 roots (later tuberised) at the base of the new bud in S. Young root. r. This year's root. T. 



^ . , . . Last year's root. From Icomgraphie des 



Koman^ofpana, in exactly the same way as occurs in hpt- OrMdies d'Bunpe by permission of 

 pactis, shows a nearer analogy with the roots of the latter ^^^ ^- '^'''""^• 

 genus. A specimen of S. autuninalis dug up near Nice had three large plump roots, and 

 two very much shrunken old ones. Dr Keller informs me that the roots of some large 



