THE FLORAL WORLD AND GAEDEN GUIDE. 



151 



If we were attracted to the copse by the Orchids, we might not 

 deem it waste of time to gather a tuft of Woodruff, Asperula odorata, 

 both for its elegant clusters of white flowers, and the delightful odour 

 it will impart to linen, books, etc., if placed amongst them while 

 fresh and there left to wither. Its whorled leaves afford a sufficient 

 character for readily determining it, independent of its neat little 

 compact, wax-like, white flowers. 



The Orchids constitute a large group of plants, notably in popular 

 estimatiou for the various resemblances of their flowers to insects, 

 birds, and even larger animals. Ours are the very humblest of the 

 family, but from them we may learn useful lessons to aid us in the 

 investigation of the whole race, or, at the very least, to enhance our 

 enjoyment of the lovely Dendrobes, Oncids, and Cattleyas of the 

 garden. Every orchid flower consists hypothetically of fifteen parts, 

 namely, three sepals, three petals, three stamens, three pistils, and 



COMMON P0EPLE OB, MEADOW OECHIS. 



1 1, pieces of the perianth, comprising both sepals and petals ; 

 2, pollen pouches ; 3, stigma ; 4, spur ; 5, twisted ovary supporting 

 blossom ; G, bract ; 7, waxy pollen masses. 



three carpels. But the several genera exhibit every imaginable 

 variation of the hypothetical characters. Thus, the labellum, or lip, 

 which is in many instances the largest, most highly-coloured, and 

 most prominent feature, is but one of the petals curiously modified. 

 The three sepals are usually equal in size and shape, and therefore 

 eafily determinable. Instead of three stamens there is commonly 

 only one produced, and this is usually combined with one or more 

 pistils, forming what is called the column. In the noblest of the 

 British Orchids, the Ladies' Slipper, Cyprepedium oaloeolm, two 

 stamens are fully developed, and the third, occurs in a sterile 

 condition between them forming the column. 



One of the commonest Orchids in flower now is the Common 

 Purple or Meadow Orchis, O. mascula, which has a succulent stem 



May 



