82 



THE ORCHID FAMILY. 



WHORLED POQONIA. {^Plate XXVII.) 



Pogbnia verticiUdta. 



FAMILY COLOUR ODOUR RANGE TIME OF BLOOM 



Orchid. Greenish^ yello%v and Scentless. Florida to Ontario April-June, 



purple. and zvesttvard. 



Flowers: terminal; solitary; erect or declined. SepaFs : one and a quarter to 

 two inches long; spreading. Petals: shorter than the sepals; oblong; erect, 

 blunt at the apex. Lip: three-lobed, crested along a narrow line. Leaves: five; 

 growing below the flowers in a whorl at the summit of the stem ; oval or 

 obovate; abruptly pointed at the apex and tapering at the base; sessile ; parallel- 

 veined; thin; smooth. Stem: eight to twelve inches high. 



Through the early spring this one of the orchids is sometimes found 

 almost hidden in shady ravines and deep, moist woods. Its flowers have 



rather a strange and rakish air from the un- 

 usual length of their sepals ; a feature, how- 

 ever, not unusual in the genus, although some 

 other members have the sepals and petals 

 alike. Another mark of the pogonias is that 

 they mostly all have a crested and three-lobed 



P. divaricdta, spreading pogonia, bears also 

 a scraggly looking flower as its three linear 

 and divergent sepals, which are a deep, 

 reddish purple, are considerably 

 longer than the flesh coloured and 

 lanceolate petals. The middle lobe 

 of the lip is somewhat longer than the 

 other two and is crested and crenate 

 about its edges. In foliage the plant 

 resembles the rose pogonia, the upper 

 bract-like leaf, however, being quite 

 long and linear. From April until 

 July the plant is considerably seen 

 through the swamps of Florida and 

 from there it extends northward to 

 New Jersey. 



P. ophioglosoides, rose pogonia or 

 snake-mouth, is a sprightly, quaint 

 looking little plant. Usually it grows 

 from five to seven inches high, al- 

 though it is known to occur taller. 

 But two leaves are developed, one about midway on the stem while the 

 other, which is smaller, appears just below the flower. In reality, this 



Rose Po^oma 



