312 



MONOTROPE^ 



I. M. uHiflora (Single-flowered Winter-green). — A remarkably 

 pretcy plant, with several roundish, smooth, serrate, radical leaves, 

 and a single, large, elegant, white, highly fragrant, long-stalked 

 flower. — Woods in the nortli of Scotland ; rare. — Fl. July. 

 Perennial. 



Ord. XLA''. Monotrope.i-:. Thp: Bird's-nest F.\mily 



A small group of brown saprophytic herbs, with little or no 

 chlorophyll, living in and upon dead 

 leaves in woods in the North Temperate 

 Zone. They have fleshy, scaly rhiMmes ; 

 unbranched stems ; scattered leaves re- 

 duced to scales ; flowers generally in 

 racemes, campanulate, 4 — 6-merous ; 

 stamens S — 10, ^ hypogynous : anthers 

 kidney-shaped, i-chambered ; ovary 4 - 

 5-chambered, superior ; style single ; 

 stigma flat ; ovules many in each chamber, 

 axile ; capsule 5-valved, loculicidal ; seeds 

 minute, with a loose testa. 



I. MoNOTROPA (Bird's-nest). — Termi- 

 nal flower 5-me'rous ; lateral ones 4- 

 merous ; sepals ^nd petals membranous, 

 saccate at the base; stamens 10 in the 

 terminal, 8 in the lateral flowers ; stigma 

 not lobed. (Name from the Greek monos, 

 one, trope, turning, from the unilateral 

 position of the flowers. 



I. M. Hypopitys (Fir-rape, Pine Bird's- 

 nest). — The only British species, with an 

 unbranched juicy stem, clothed through- 

 out with scaly bracts, and terminating in 

 a drooping, one-sided raceme of brownish- 

 yellow flowers, which eventually turn 

 almost black. — Woods near the roots of 

 P^ir and Beech ; local. This plant must 

 not be confounded with the Bird's-nest 

 Orchis (Neottia Widtis-dvis) or with the 

 Broom-rapes {Or'obdnchc), in both of 

 which the flowels are monosynmietric, 

 the former 3-merous, the latter bilabiate 



(,Phie Bird'\-iu I/, 1 11 



and didynamous 



June — August. Perennial. 



