I02 CALOPOGON PULCHELLUS. GRASS-PINK. 



Salisbury and Linnceus are both quoted as authorities for this 

 name. The modern appellation, Calopogon, Is first found In 

 Alton's " Hortus Kewensis," second edition, where It is said to 

 have been adopted from a manuscript furnished by Robert 

 Brown in 1832. This name has since been generally received • 

 and as no disposition has anywhere been shown to change it, we 

 may conclude that botanists are convinced they have really 

 arrived at a correct understanding of the structure and the 

 essential characters of the curious flowers known as Orchids, a 

 subject which, long after the time of Linn^us, was still en- 

 veloped in much mystery. The genus Limodoritm, which once 

 had many representatives, at present consists of barely a dozen 

 species, the rest having been transferred to other genera, i 



Calopogon piilchellus derives Its generic name from the Greek 

 kalos, beautiful, and pogon, beard, in allusion to the beautifully 

 bearded lip ; the specific name simply emphasizes its beauty, 

 ptdchellus being the diminutive of the Latin adjective pulc/ier, 

 beautiful. The common name of the plant in Michigan, accord- 

 ing to Mr. Coleman, is Grass-Pink. 



The structure of an Orchid flower, seemingly so different from 

 that of other flowers, is found to be very simple by the informed 

 student. Still, almost every genus, or even almost every single 

 species of the order, will illustrate some law of growth or form 

 better than another, and it will therefore repay us to devote a 

 few moments to the study of the flowers of our Grass-Pink. In 

 them we are brought face to face with a very remarkable mani- 

 festation of the law of torsion, as shown in the final arrangement 

 of the petals. The student knows that the type of most Orchids 

 Is ternary, or, in other words, that three leaves form a verticil in 

 them whenever the spiral growth is rapidly arrested, and the 

 spiral coil is brought down to a j^lane. We generally look for 

 three leaves on the flower-stem of an Orchid of this kind ; but in 

 our present species only the central one of the three has been 

 developed, while the lower has advanced no further than a red- 

 dish-brown sheath, and the third, or upper one, has been so en- 



