CHAPTER VIII 



PARDANTHOPSIS 



36. I. verna, Linn., Sweet Brit. FL Gard., t. 68 (see 

 accompanying plate). An interesting and pretty plant, 

 but not showy. As grown in the Cambridge Botanic 

 Garden, the flowers agree perfectly with the figure 

 quoted above, but the rhizome is quite different. It is 

 short, creeping, moderately stout, with short internodes. 

 The leaves are linear, bright green above, slightly 

 glaucous below, about 6 in. long and ^ in. wide (are 

 described as ij ft. long), persistent through the winter. 

 The stem is very short, entirely hidden by bracts, one- 

 headed, spathe-valves about four, ij to 2 in. long, 

 lanceolata, pedicel short. The perianth-tube is slender, 

 1 1 to if in. long 5 limb violet-purple, ij in. long; falls 

 obovate-cuneate, rather more than \ in. broad at broadest 

 part, with a splendid golden line proceeding from \ in. 

 below apex of blade down the claw flanked with white ; 

 a characteristic pubescence 1 not forming a linear beard 

 is easily seen with a good lens, as also are linear tufts 

 of remarkable awl-shaped brown hairs, which form lines 

 into the golden area from the purple ; standards erect, 

 broadly ovate, unguiculate, the unguis forming a channel 

 by its upturned edges ; style-arms \ in. long, with crests 

 of equal length obliquely oblong, very slightly laciniate 

 at the apex. Is a native of Ohio, Kentucky, Virginia, 



1 This pubescence is not unique, as I find precisely the same, includ- 

 ing the awl-shaped hairs, in one of the forms of spuria. There is reason 

 for regarding /. verna as an Apogon, and certainly it agrees in the 

 peculiar leaf-character of one or two American kinds. 



87 



