ORCHID FAMILY. Orchidaccae. 



ORCHID FAMILY. Orchidaceae. 



A very large family, most abundant in the tropics; 

 curious plants, with oddly beautiful flowers. Perhaps 

 because they are also rather rare they seem to have a 

 peculiar fascination for the public; in fact almost any 

 strangely-shaped flower is apt to be dubbed an orchid by 

 the passer-by. They are perennial herbs, with various 

 kinds of roots, some of them parasitic, usually with alter- 

 nate, toothless leaves, the lower ones sheathing the stem. 

 In some kinds the leaves have dwindled to scales. The 

 flowers are perfect, irregular, with six divisions; the three 

 sepals are alike and colored like petals; two of the three 

 petals are alike, but the central one differs in size and shape 

 and is called the lip. This is conspicuously colored, often 

 spurred, and contains nectar for the attraction of " long- 

 tongued" insects, on which these plants depend mostly for 

 cross-pollination. The mechanism for this purpose is 

 curious and interesting. The stigma is usually a broad 

 sticky surface and its style is united with the filaments and 

 forms, in front of the lip, a column which is usually capped 

 by a single two-celled anther, containing two clusters of 

 pollen, one in each cell. Each cluster consists of a few 

 waxy grains, held together by cobweb-like threads, which 

 run together and terminate in a sticky disk. These disks 

 adhere to the insects, which push in to get the nectar, and 

 are transported to the gummy stigma of another flower. 

 The inferior ovary develops into a three-valved capsule, 

 containing numerous minute seeds. Orchis is the ancient 

 Greek name. 



There is only one kindcf Cephalanthera in North America; 

 with creeping rootstocks; flowers in terminal spikes, with 

 bracts; sepals and petals nearly equal; petals somewhat 

 united and hooded; lip more or less pouched. 



In dense mountain forests these strange 

 Phantom Orchis 



plants shimmer like pallid ghosts among 



Austinae the dark trees. They are pure translucent 



White white throughout, stem and all, and the 



leaves have shrunk to white sheaths, an 

 inch or two long. The stems are one to 

 two feet tall and bear spikes of numerous flowers, each over 

 half an inch long, with the lip shorter than the sepals and 

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