56 EPIDENDRUM VENOSUM. VEINED TREE-ORCHIS. 



last. If we look at this orchid flower we see that if the lip had 

 been made like the other divisions, we should have had a six-parted 

 corolla of a very common type, and in making orchid flowers 

 nature has done little more than busied herself in seeino- how 



o 



different she could make the lip from the other five divisions of 

 the six-parted flower. In the present case the lip is not much 

 different from the other divisions. It is a little broader, but 

 depends chiefly for its distinctiveness on its incurved base. The 

 beautiful rose-colored veins give it its chief attraction, and it is 

 from this that it derives its specific name venosum, which is Latin 

 for veined. 



Our description tells us that the plant is "tumid at the base." 

 These bases are known to gardeners as pseudo-bulbs, that is to 

 say, "false" bulbs; but really there is no difference in their 

 essential nature from true bulbs. They are both formed from 

 the thickened and united bases of the leaves, but the true bulb 

 is generally formed under ground. New pseudo-bulbs are 

 formed every year as the root stock grows. At Fig. i we see 

 the remains of the pseudo-bulbs of years gone by, which have 

 had leaves, and probably flowers. At Fig. 3 we have the more 

 recent ones, which in a few years will look as Fig. i. From these 

 new bulbs, the new roots, Fig. 2, come, and by which they feed 

 and are attached to the supporting tree. The roots always come 

 out from the new bulb. After the leaves have been fully formed, 

 roots will never come out acrain from the bulb that bears them. 



Explanations of the Plate. — i. Old pseudo-bulbs, at what was once the termination of the 

 root stock. 2. New bulbs at present terminus of the creeping root stock. 3. Aerial root. 

 4. Complete plant, full size, in flower. 5. Branch of tree on which it is growing in Cam- 

 bridge Botanical Garden. 



