122 ORCHIDACEAE (ORCHID FAMILY) 



2. SISYRINCHIUM L. BLUE-EYED GRASS 



Stems simple or branched, usually geniculate and winged, with linear- 

 lanceolate or grass-like radical leaves, and fugacious flowers on slender pedi- 

 cels, clustered within 2 sheathing herbaceous bracts, with a scabrous bractlet 

 subtending each pedicel. Perianth 6-parted. Capsule membranaceous, sub- 



Flowers and fruits all terminal on normal (scapes) stems. 



Bracts very unequal; the outer (lower) much surpassing the in- 

 florescence. 

 Plant large throughout . . . . . . . . 1. S. montanum. 



Plant slender, scapes and leaves very narrow . . . . 2. S. angustifolium. 



Bracts moderately unequal, the outer not much longer than the in- 

 florescence . . . . . . . . . . 3. S. occidentale. 



Flowers and fruits in part basal on dwarf (scapes) stems . . . 4. S. heterocarpum. 



1. Sisyrinchium montanum Greene, Pitt. 4: 33. 1899. Plant stout, erect, 

 more than 3 dm. high, herbage light green, glabrous, not glaucescent : foliage 

 rather copious but short, less than half the length of the scapes, the broad 

 leaves about 9-striate, the alternate lines commonly rather obscure: scapes 

 ancipital, each of the broad, sharp-edged subentire wings strongly 3-striate: 

 spathes mostly solitary, their bracts very unequal, the outer more than twice 

 the length of the inner and 4-5 cm. long: perianth dark purple: capsules large 

 (about 5 mm. in diameter), almost globose. Western Colorado. 



2. Sisyrinchium angustifolium Miller, Diet. Ed. 7. 1759. Pale green and 

 glaucous: stem 2-edged but scarcely winged, 1-3 dm. high: leaves very narrow, 

 the edges either rough or smooth, much shorter than the stem: bracts very 

 unequal, sometimes purplish, the outer about twice as long as the inner and 

 usually much surpassing the flowers and fruit: capsules subglobose. S. 

 mucronatum and S. anceps. (S. alpestre Bickn. 1. c. 453.) Moist grassy banks 

 and fields; Colorado to the New England States. 



3. Sisyrinchium occidentale Bickn. Bull. Torr. Bot. Club 26: 447. 1899. 

 Rather stiffly erect, 15-30 cm. high: leaves narrow, rigid and pungently acute, 

 much shorter than the stem: bracts more or less hyaline-margined, somewhat 

 unequal; the outer 2-3 cm. long, equaling or but slightly longer than the in- 

 florescence: capsule subglobose, light brown. Colorado to Idaho and Montana. 



4. Sisyrinchium heterocarpum Bickn. 1. c. 348. Resembling S. angustifolium 

 but greener and the stems somewhat stouter: leaves short, mostly less than 

 half as long as the stems, rather rigid : bracts very unequal, the outer usually 

 much surpassing the inflorescence: flowers and fruits of two kinds, terminal 

 and basal; the latter more or less concealed among the bases of the leaves: 

 perianth violet-purple, 10mm. long: capsule obovoid-subglobose: seeds black, 

 angled and rugulose-pitted. Throughout Wyoming and probably extending 

 into Colorado. 



27. ORCHIDACEAE Lindl. ORCHID FAMILY 



Perennial herbs, often with tuberous or fleshy roots, sometimes parasitic; 

 the leaves mostly alternate, sheathing and entire. Flowers perfect, irregular, 

 bracteate, solitary or in a spike or raceme, often showy and singular in shape, 

 adapted to cross-pollination by means of insects. Perianth-segments in two 

 series or sets; the 3 outer (sepals) similar or nearly so; the lateral ones of the 

 3 inner (petals) alike; the third of the inner set very dissimilar and often 

 spurred, and known as the lip (labellum). Before the lip, in the axis of the 

 flower, is the column, composed of a single stamen, or in Cypripedium 2, vari- 

 ously coherent with or borne on the style or thick fleshy stigma. Pollen 

 united by elastic threads into 2 clavate or pear-shaped usually stalked masses 

 (pollinia), one to each anther cell, and attached by the base of the stalk to a 



