SAPROPHYTES IN THE HUMUS OF WOODS, MEADOWS, AND MOORS. Ill 



subsequently become paler in colour. The bird's-nesfc orchis (Neottia Nidus-avis) 

 is of wide distribution both in forests of pines and in those composed of angio- 

 spermous trees. Its stem and flowers are of a light-brown colour, unusual in plants, 

 but somewhat like that of oak-wood. The flowers have no scent, and the numerous 

 roots, issuing from the subterranean part of the stem and imbedded in humus, 

 remind one in form and colour of earth-worms, and together constitute a strange 

 tangled mass as large as a fist. The latter has been thought to resemble a bird's 

 nest, and to this is due the name of the plant. The coral-root (Corallorhiza innata), 

 unlike the bird's-nest orchis, has no root at all; but, on the other hand, the sub- 

 terranean portion of the stem, the so-called rhizome, possesses a distant resemblance 

 to the root -tangle of Neottia. Pale -brownish branches of this rhizome, which 

 bifurcate repeatedly at their obtuse and whitish extremities, looking as if they 

 had been subjected to pressure for a time, and all the short lobe-shaped branchlets 

 thereby spread out into one plane, lie closely crowded together, sometimes crossing 

 one another, and so form a body which vividly recalls the appearance of a piece of 

 coral. This underground coral-like stem-structure develops each year pale greenish 

 shoots which rise above the ground and bear small flowers speckled with yellow, 

 white, and violet, and exhaling a scent of vanilla; later, green fruits of a com- 

 paratively large size develop, turning brown when they ripen. 



The fourth mentioned of these pale wood-orchids, the Epipogium aphyllum, is 

 at once the rarest and most curious of them all. Like the coral-root it has no true 

 roots. Its rhizome so closely resembles the latter's that it is easy to mistake the 

 one for the other; but they may be distinguished by the fact that in the case of 

 Epipogium the rhizome sends out long filiform shoots, which swell up like tubers 

 at their tips, and may be regarded as subterranean runners. The swollen extremity 

 becomes the point of origin of a new coral-like structure, which develops at about 

 the distance of a span from the old one; whilst the latter, usually exhausted after 

 flowering, gradually perishes. This coral -like stem lives of course underground, 

 and is not visible till one lifts away the moss from the mould on the ground. It is 

 often completely imbedded in sandy loam, lying immediately beneath the black 

 mould. Many years frequently go by without the Epipogium producing flowers. 

 The plant meanwhile lives entirely underground. In the course of a summer in 

 which it has not flowered, anyone not having previous exact knowledge of its where- 

 abouts might pass by without dreaming that the bed of moss and humus on his 

 path concealed this strange growth. The flowering stems which at length emerge, 

 when there is a warm summer, are right above the place where they branch off 

 from the subterranean rhizome. They are thickened in a fusiform manner, and 

 have, for the most part on one side, a reddish or purplish tinge. Everything 

 connected with them is tense, smooth, full of sap, and almost opalescent. The 

 few flowers that are borne by the stem are comparatively large, and emit a strong 

 perfume resembling that of the Brazilian genus of orchids Stanhopea. The colour- 

 ing, too, a dull yellowish white with touches of pale red and violet, reminds one of 

 these tropical orchids. 



