ORCHIDACE^ 175 



ORCHIDACEJE (Orchid Family) 



Perennial herbs. Flowers very irregular, epigynous. Perianth 

 3 + 3, petaloid. Usually only one fertile stamen present ; 

 gynandrous. Carpels three, syncarpous ; ovary one-chambered, 

 with three parietal placentae bearing many ovules. Fruit a 

 capsule containing innumerable minute seeds. 



Type: EARLY ORCHIS {Orchis mascula). 



Vegetative characters. — A perennial herb with oval sub- 

 terranean tubers. There are two tubers visible : one is darker 

 in tint, softer, and terminates above in the flowering axis. It 

 is the older tuber at the apex of which there originally occurred 

 a bud which has now developed into the flowering axis. At the 

 base of the latter are inserted spirally - arranged leaves with 

 sheathing bases : the lowest of the leaves are mere sheathing 

 scales. The second tuber, originally developed in the axil of 

 the lowest scale, is lighter in colour and firmer in texture than 

 the mother-tuber. When the inflorescence-axis decays, the- 

 older tuber shrivels up, and in the following year the younger 

 tuber will in turn produce another stem bearing foliage-leaves 

 and flowers, as well as an axillary tuber destined to flower in 

 the third year. Each tuber thus lives for two vegetative 

 seasons only. Although a tuber arises as an axillary bud on 

 its predecessor, it is not wholly constituted of shoot : its basal 

 portion is made up of several fleshy adventitious roots which 

 are closely combined. An Orchid-tuber, therefore, consists 

 of root and shoot. The foliage-leaves are parallel-veined and 

 often spotted. Inflorescence : a spike with small bracts. 

 Flower (figs. 220, 221, 222) median-zygomorphiCj $, two- 

 lipped, epigynous : colour varying from pinkish-purple to white. 

 Perianth (P, p,p. '0 3 4-3. The six perianth-leaves are combined 

 only at their bases. The free portions of five of them [three 

 outer (P) and two inner (/)] form an upper lip, whilst the 

 sixth (a median inner one) forms a lower lip — the labellum 

 (/. /). The labellum has a long spur (sp). Stamens and 

 carpels. — The centre of the flower is occupied by a short, 

 thick mass — the column — which is formed by the cohesion 

 of the filaments with the style. The column is inserted 

 directly upon the inferior ovary. Looking at the centre 



