ROUND-LEAVED ORCHIS 



Orchis rotundijolia Pursh 

 ORCHID FAMILY 



Although not one of our rarest or showiest orchids, this one 

 is pretty enough, and in most districts uncommon enough, to 

 make its discovery a happy event to the lover of flowers. Some 

 years ago, in October, I found a few dried stems with empty seed 

 cases at the top and a withered leaf at the base of each, and 

 recognized an old acquaintance not met with for fifteen years. 

 My eagerness took me back too early the next June, but on a 

 second visit, the two or three dozen plants were in full bloom. 

 This small colony has flourished and spread along the little 

 waterway, and last Summer several hundred flower-spikes were 

 produced a sight worth going far to see, and a natural garden 

 worth preserving. 



The Round-leaved Orchis lives in rich, moist woods, often 

 where the ground is covered with moss, from which, leaving its 

 single leaf behind, the flowers rise in crisp, glistening purity to 

 a height of about six inches. They are white, delicately tinted 

 pink with a suggestion of mauve. The upper sepal and two 

 petals form a hood, and under it stands the column, a structure 

 peculiar to the orchid family, in which are combined the organs 

 corresponding to stamens and pistil in other flowers. On either 

 side are wing-like sepals, while in front, the third petal spreads 

 out into a purple-spotted lip or apron, and below is a curved tube 

 containing nectar. The hood protects the column, the essential 

 part of the flower, the lip is the landing stage for the winged 

 guest, who finding in front of him the opening into the nectary, 

 thrusts in his tongue, thus bringing his head against the adhesive 

 ends of the two pollen masses. When he flies away to the next 

 flower he of course carries the pollen along. 



The wonderful interrelationship in form and service that 

 exists between flowers and insects, suggested in the above descrip- 

 tion, is nowhere carried to such a specialized degree as in the 

 orchid family. 



32 



