O P II 



O P II 



standing the severity of most winters in the open 

 air. 



The fourth sort should have the seeds sown in 

 the early spring on an open hordes, the plants 

 being aftei wards properly thinned and kept clean 

 from weeds. It may likewise be raised bom 

 slips planted out at the same season. It is very 

 hardy, and requires little trouble in its cultivation. 

 They are all plants which afford ornament and 

 variety in the borders, or among other potted plants 

 of the green-house kind. 



OPHIOXYI.L'M, a genus containing a plant 

 of the shrubby climbing kind. 



It belongs to the class and order Polysomia 

 Monoecia, and ranks in the natural order of 

 jipocmeae. 



The characters are : that in the hermaphrodite 

 flowers, the calyx is a five-cleft perianthium, 

 acute, erect, verv small : the corolla is one- 

 petallcd, funnel-form : tube long, filiform, thick- 

 ened in the middle : border five-parted, spreading 

 a little, without a nectary: the stamina have five 

 filaments, very short, in the- middle of the tube: 

 anthers acuminate : the pistillum is a superior 

 germ, roundish: style filiform, the length of the 

 stamens : stigma capitate : the pericarpium is a 

 berrv twin, two-celled : the seeds solitary, round- 

 ish. Male flowers on the same plant: the calyx 

 as in the hermaphrodites (bifid) : corolla one- 

 petalled, funnel-form : tube long: border five- 

 cleft : nectary in the mouth of the corolla, cy- 

 lindric, quite entire : the stamina have two 

 filaments, very short: anthers acuminate, con- 

 verging within the nectary. 



The species is 0. strpt-ntinum, Scarlet-flow- 

 ered Ophioxylum. 



It has the stem upright, round, quite simple: 

 the leaves in fours placed cross-wise, lanceolate- 

 ovate, smooth, acuminate, petioled : nectary like 

 that of narcissus ; but according toBurmann the 

 stem is three-cornered, jointed, stiiated; at each 

 joint are threeleaves, which are oblong acuminate, 

 entire not serrate, in which they differ from those 

 of the peach-tree, whose form they resemble,: 

 petioles short : at the top of the stem are many 

 iiorets in a sort of umbel ; and Jussieu describes 

 it as a shrub with three or four leaves in whorls; 

 flowers glomerate, terminating, males mixed 

 u ith the hermaphrodites, two-stamened only, 

 with a cylindric entire crown at the throat of 

 tire tube, without any germ: the berry fleshy, 

 two-lobed, within a very small three- or five-cleft 

 calyx, lenticular-compressed, two-celled, of a 

 brick-red : it is a native of the East Indies, 

 flowering in May and the following month. 



Culture. — This may be raided by seeds, which 

 should be sown in pots in the early spring and 

 be pluuced in a bark hot-bed, and when the 

 7 



plants have attained some growth, removed into 

 E J .u ate pots and l.-pUinsied in the bark hot-bed 

 of, the stove, win re the plan;-. nu:>t be constantly 

 kept. It may likewise be increased by layers and 

 cuttings, which should be laid down or planted 

 out 3t the same season and have the same sort of 

 management as those procured from seeds. 

 They are ornamental stove plants. 

 Ol'IIRYS, a genus comprising plants of the 

 bulbo-fibrous-rooted perennial kind. 



It belongs to the class and order Gynandria 

 Diantlria, and ranks in the natural order of 

 Orchidece. 



The characters are : that the calyx has wander- 

 ing spatbes: spadix simple : perianthium none : 

 the corolla has five oblong petals, converging 

 upwards, equal ; two of these exterior : neetarv 

 longer than the petals, hanging down, posteriorly 

 one somewhat keeled : the stamina have two fila- 

 ments, very short, placed on the pistil: anthers 

 erect, covered with the inner margin of the 

 nectary: the pistillum is an oblong germ, con- 

 torted, inferior : style fastened to the inner mar- 

 gin of the nectary : stigma obsolete: the peri- 

 carpium is a subovate capsule, three-cornered, 

 blunt, striated, three- valvetj, one-celled, opening 

 at the keeled angles : the seeds numerous, like 

 saw-dust : the receptacle linear, fastened to each 

 valve of the pericarpium. 



The species cultivated are: 1. O.ovata, Com- 

 mon Ophrys or Twayblade; 2. 0. spiralis, Spiral 

 Ophrys, or Triple Lady's Traces; 3. 0. nidus 

 avis, Bird's-nest Ophrys; 4. 0. muscifcra, Fly 

 Ophrys -5.0. apifera, Bee Ophrys ; C. 0. arani- 

 fcra, Spider Ophrys; 7. 0. monorchia, Yellow 

 or Musk Ophrys ; 8. 0. anthropoplwra, Man 

 Ophrys. 



The first has a perennial root, consisting like 

 the third of numerous thick fleshy bundled fibres, 

 and renewed every year : the stem from twelve 

 to eighteen inches, and even two feet in height, 

 below the leaves much thicker than above, and 

 naked ; above the leaves downy ; the lower part 

 of-the stem immediately above the root i» clothed 

 with a membranaceous spalhe of two or three 

 leaves ; about one-third of the height of the stem 

 areplaced two very broad ovate leaves, one embra- 

 cing the other at the base, marked with about 

 seven nerves, and much resembling the leaves of 

 the broad plantain ; above these are two or three 

 very short ovate, acuminate stipules : the fk>«l 

 numerous, in a loose spike, four inches long or 

 more, yellowish green. '1 he flowers have a li i- 

 grant musky scent. It is a native- of most parts 

 of Europe. 



It varies with three leaves. 

 The second species has from one to three bulb- 

 or sometimes four, varying from oblong, and halt 

 Y e 



