OBCHIDACEAE. 81 



blue, violet or white with a yellow eye, rarely all yellow, the 6 oblong or ob- 

 ovate segments spreading and aristulate; filaments monadelphous ; anthers 

 linear or oblong, the sacs distinct at base; style threadform, the branches fili- 

 form or obsolete; ovary 3-celled; capsule globose, oval or obovoid, usually 

 trigonous, loculicidally 3-valved; seeds globose to obovoid, often angled, pitted 

 or smooth. Flowers fugacious, opening successively in sunlight, each usually 

 lasting but a day. Probably not fewer than 125 species, nearly all American. 

 Type species: Sisyrinchium Bermudiana L. 



1. Sisyrinchium miamiense Bicknell, Bull. Torr. -Club 26 : 226. 1899. 



Glabrous; stems erect, 2-3 dm. high, somewhat longer than the leaves. 

 Leaves 1-2 mm. wide, striate-nerved, acute, serrulate; peduncles 2-4, slender, 

 3-7 cm. long; spathes 12-15 mm. long, the bracts keeled, the outer one slightly 

 longer than the inner; flowers blue, about 1 cm. wide; fruiting pedicels ex- 

 serted, 10-15 mm. long; capsules obovoid, 3-5 mm. long, mucronulate. 



Margins of swamps, Great Bahama near West End : Florida. MIAMI BLUE- 

 EYED GRASS. 



Order 10. ORCHIDALES. 



Monocotyledonous herbs, many tropical species epiphytes. Flowers 

 mostly very irregular, complete and perfect, their parts in 3's or 6's. 

 Ovary inferior, compound. Seeds very numerous and minute, without 

 endosperm. 



Family 1. ORCHIDACEAE Lindl. 

 ORCHID FAMILY. 



Perennial herbs, with corms, bulbs or tuberous roots, sheathing entire 

 leaves, sometimes reduced to scales, the flowers perfect, irregular, bracted, 

 solitary, spiked or racemed. Perianth superior, of 6 segments, the 3 outer 

 (sepals) similar or nearly so, 2 of the inner ones (petals) lateral, alike; the 

 third inner one (lip) dissimilar, often markedly so, usually larger, often 

 spurred, sometimes inferior by torsion of the ovary or pedicel. Stamens 

 variously united with the style into an unsymmetrical column; anther 1 or 

 in Cypripedium 2, 2-celled; pollen in 2-8 pear-shaped, usually stalked 

 masses (pollinia), united by elastic threads, the masses waxy or powdery, 

 attached at the base to a viscid disk (gland). Style often terminating in a 

 beak (rostellum) at the base of the anther or between its sacs. Stigma a 

 viscid surface, facing the lip beneath the rostellum, or in a cavity between 

 the anther-sacs (clinandrium). Ovary inferior, usually long and twisted, 

 3-angled, 1-celled; ovules numerous, anatropous, on 3 parietal placentae. 

 Capsule 3-valved. Seeds very numerous, minute, mostly spindle shaped, 

 the loose coat hyaline, reticulated; endosperm none; embryo fleshy. About 

 410 genera and 5000 species, of wide distribution, most abundant in the 

 tropics, many of those of warm regions epiphytes. 



Flowering stem or peduncle terminal. 

 Leaves convolute. 



Anther blunt, generally rounded, usually much exceeding the rostellum and 



appressed to or incumbent upon it. 

 Lip not enclosing the column; flowers erect or ascending; low erect 



herbs. 1. Carteria. 



Lip enclosing the column ; flowers nodding ; suc- 

 culent vines. 2. Vanilla. 



