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is present it is brought about by a twisting of the flower- 

 stalk. We have twelve species, and the colour is commonly 

 red-brown or greenish marked with white. The column is> 

 very short. 



Microtis has green flowers, and looks very like the last, 

 only the flower has the labellum below. 



Spiranthes, hitherto only found on the east and north 

 coasts, has numerous small pink flowers arranged in a 

 spiral. 



Cockatoo is widely dispersed, though seldom gathered. 

 It is dark red-brown throughout. The stalk is slender, 

 erect, and bears one to three medium-sized flowers. The 

 sepals and pair of petals are all narrow and slender. The 

 column is below, nearly as long as the sepals, curved and 

 bordered by two large delicate, somewhat diverging wings. 

 The labellum is above; it has a strap-shaped, irritable 

 stalk, and a broad convex, nearly black, main portion that 

 appears as an inviting crest for a fly to alight upon. When 

 a fly does so the labellum suddenly shuts down, enclosing 

 it in a box composed of the labellum and column wings. 

 The insect, in its efforts to escape, rubs itself on the stigma 

 and then against the anthers, performing similar work to 

 that done in Cow Horns. 



Duck Orchid is occasionally found in swampy country. 

 The flowers are dark-red. With a very small column, it 

 has a very large broad labellum, which is above, and looks 

 something like a duck's bill. 



As already said, the common habit of tropical Orchids 

 is to grow upon the branches of trees. They are not para- 

 sites, but simply epiphytal; that is, grows upon the tree" 

 without deriving nourishment from it. 



We have only one epiphytal Orchid, which is occasion 

 ally found on the east and north coasts. It has many 

 long roots, closely clasping a branch, a few long flat pale- 

 green leaves, and drooping bunches of pink and white 

 flowers. It is commonly called Gunnia, after R. Gunn, 

 the man who did more than any other Tasmania!} botanist 

 in the study of our plants. 



Of our other Orchids, Ant Orchid has a pair of broad 

 leaves close to the ground, and an irritable labellum with 

 shining glands on its surface, giving it a resemblance to an 

 ant. Longbeard has a long labellum placed above and 

 densely covered with purple hairs. Eriochilus, which 

 appears in late summer, is small, without any leaf, and 

 one or two pink flowers, very like a small Caladenia, but 

 the labellum is erect, with a fleshy sharply recurved end. 



