OrcKidaceae 



Orchid Family 



[In compiling the appendix of New England Orchids, the 

 author has followed the order of classification and nomencla- 

 ture adopted by Messrs. Britton and Brown in the Illustrated 

 Flora of Northeastern North America, 1896, without doubt 

 the highest and most systematic arrangement according to the 

 progress of evolution and the advancement of the science of 

 botany in North America.] 



Orchidace^, lyindley, Natural System, 2d ed., p. 336. 1836. 



Perennial plants arising from bulbs, corms, fibrous, or tuber- 

 ous roots. Stems or scapes 2 inches to 3-4 feet high. Leaves 

 parallel-veined, sheathing, and plicate, sometimes reduced to 

 scales. Flowers perfect or irregular, solitary or in a spiked 

 raceme, usually subtended by a leafy bract. Perianth consists 

 of 6 segments. The calyx, or outer whorl, consisting of 3 

 parts (sepals) ; the corolla, or inner whorl, consisting of 3 

 parts (petals). The third petal is designated labellum (lip), or 

 nectary, and is in orchids the most beautiful part, assuming 

 grotesque shapes ornamented with spurs and fringes. The 

 staniens and pistils are variously united with the style, forming 

 an unsymmetrical column. Anther, i, or in Cypripediuni 2; 

 2-celIed. Pollen in 2-8 pear-shaped, usually stalked masses 

 {pollinia), united by elastic threads, the masses waxy or pow- 

 dery, attached at the base to a viscid disk (gland). Stigma, a 

 viscid surface, facing the labellum beneath the rostellum, or in 

 a cavity between the anther-sacs {dinandrium). Seed-cap- 

 sule (ovary) inferior, long and twisted, 3-angled, i-celled. 

 Ovules minute, spindle-shaped, and numerous ; embryo fleshy. 

 The colors of orchids are various and beautiful ; their fragrance 

 heavy and exquisite in several species. Orchids were known 

 and designated by Linnaeus in 1753 as Gytiavdrous, meaning 

 " stamens and pistils united to the column." There are about 

 410 genera and from 6,000 to 10,000 species, widely distributed 

 throughout the damp and wooded regions of the world. More 

 abundant in the humid atmosphere of the tropics, where many 

 species are air-plants or epiphytes. The orchids of the tem- 

 perate and sub-arctic regions are terrestrial, drawing their 

 nourishment from the earth. 



North American Orchids, North of Mexico. . . .150-160 



New England Orchids 48-56 



Hoosac Valley Orchids 40-42 



16 



241 



