ORCHIDEOUS TRIBE 



an 



Stratiotes Aloidks 

 (Water- soldier) 



I. Stratiotes (Water -soldier) 



i. S. aloides (Water-soldier). The only 

 British species ; growing in ditches in the 

 east of England. The roots extend to 

 some distance into the mud, and throw 

 out numerous rigid, prickly leaves, like 

 those of an Aloe ; the flower-stalk is about 

 6 inches high, and bears at its summit a 

 2-leaved sheath, containing several delicate 

 white flowers, bearing stamens, or one 

 flower only, bearing pistils. It rises to the 

 surface before flowering, and then sinks to 

 the bottom. Fl. July. Perennial. 



Natural Order LXXX 



ORCHIDACEjE. Orchideous Tribe 



Sepals 3, often coloured ; petals 3, the 

 lowest unlike the rest, and frequently 

 spurred ; stamens and style united into a 

 central column ; pollen powdery or viscid, sometimes raised in masses 

 on minute stalks ; ovary i-celled ; stigma a viscid hollow in front 

 of the column ; fruit, a 3-valved capsule, with 3 rows of seeds. A 

 very extensive tribe of perennial herbaceous plants, with fibrous or 

 tuberous roots, fleshy or leathery leaves, all the veins of which are 

 parallel, and flowers so variable in form as to defy general descrip- 

 tion, yet so peculiar that very slight experience will enable the 

 student to refer them to their proper tribe. British species have 

 for the most part two or more glossy sheathing leaves, and bear 

 their flowers in simple spikes or clusters. The colour of the flowers 

 is purple, mottled with various other tints flesh-coloured, white, 

 or greenish. The structure of the lower lip of the corolla is in 

 many cases most singular, sometimes resembling in form, size, and 

 colour, insects which naturally frequent the places where the flowers 

 grow : such are the Bee, Fly, and Spider Orchis (Ophrys apifera, 

 O. muscifera, and 0. aranifera). In other instances the same organ 

 presents a fantastic caricature of some more important subject of 

 the animal kingdom : such are the Man, and Monkey Orchis (Acer as 

 anthropophora and Orchis macro). The same mimicking extends 

 to foreign species. " So various are they in form," says Dr. Lindley, 

 " that there is scarcely a common reptile or insect to which some 

 of them have not been likened." Occasionally the structure is 

 more complex : in Caleana nigrita the column is a boat-shaped 

 box, resembling a lower lip ; the lip itself forms a lid that exactly 

 fits it, and is hinged on a claw, which reaches the middle of the 

 column ; when the flower opens the lip turns round within the 



