OPHKYDEjE—GYMNADENIIN^—HERMINIUM 123 



I. Herminium monorchis R. Br. 



PL 23 B (p. 130); PI. F, fig. 3. Musk Orchid 



Tubers globose, as big as a pea, sometimes twice or thrice that si^e, the flowering 

 one sessile, the rest, usually 2-3, sometimes 4-5, on long stalks (up to 10 cm.), semi- 

 transparent, slug-Hke, immature ; roots few, rather slender. Stem 8-20 cm. tall (some- 

 times more), stiff, erect, slender, rounded, glabrous, angled above, yellow-green or 

 dark green with one or two close-fitting leafless sheaths at base. Leaves two, some- 

 times 3-4, oblong, obtuse or acute, keeled, flat or slightly folded, spreading, glabrous, 

 yellowish or bluish green, with one principal, and fainter intermediate nerves on each 

 side; upper leaves 1-3, sessile, small, bract-like, tapering, acute. Spike 1-5 cm., 

 slender, cylindrical, erect, many-flowered, dense, "sometimes very lax" (Webster), 

 often one-sided. Flowers very small (± 4 mm.), drooping, sub-campanulate, yellow- 

 green or green, sweet-scented, the lower somewhat distant. Bracts usually shorter than 

 ovary, but the lowest sometimes as long as the flowers, lanceolate, tapering, i -nerved, 

 green. Ovary sessile, erect, cylindrical, slightly twisted, prolonged and bent down- 

 wards at apex, pale green. Sepals connivent, maldng the flower almost tubular, the 

 upper broader, oval, rounded at tip, the lateral ovate-lanceolate, obtuse, 3-nerved. 

 Petals longer and narrower with a rounded angle or tooth on each side, then sud- 

 denly narrowed, strap-shaped, obtuse. Lip equal to or slightly longer than petals, 

 3-lobed, dagger-shaped, with a small cup-Uke hollow at base; side-lobes short, widely 

 divergent or curved downwards, mid-lobe longer and broader, linear obtuse. Column 

 small, short, broad. Anther rounded, cells slightly divergent at base, with a large 

 plate-hke quadrilateral staminode on each side, with rounded angles. Pollinia oval, 

 white, relatively large, packets of pollen rounded, suggesting a microscopic bunch 

 of grapes, caudicles short, thick, elastic, vertically attached to the hinder end of the 

 viscidium, which is large, obscurely triangular, with the edges turned up, very sticky 

 beneath and resting on a narrow strip of membrane, easily pushed away. Stigma 

 transversely 2-lobed, the broad part of each lobe directly beneath the viscid gland, 

 surrounded by glabrous thickened walls. Seed-capsule oblong, tapering at the base, 

 with six ridges. Seeds short, extremely small, nearly linear (figured in Reich, f. Im?es, 

 PL 63, fig. 23), ripe about mid-September (Webster). PL F, fig. 3, gives a good idea 

 of the habit of the plant. 



As a rule only 3 or 4 inches tall, with 2-3 short leaves and a stiff litde prickly- 

 looking spike of green curiously scented flowers. Though called the Musk Orchid, 

 the flowers do not smell of musk, but have a honey-hke indefinable scent with a faint 

 suggestion of cobbler's wax. The only British orclfid resembling it is Malaxis paludosa, 

 which has wide-open flowers with the lip pointing upwards, and is only found in 



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