io8 OUR NATIVE ORCHIDS 



I. BROAD-LIPPED TWAYBLADE 



Listera convallarioides (Sw.) Torrey. (Plate XLIIL, Fig. I.) 



This species of Twayblade looks like a greenish blossom 

 of Lily-of-the-Valley, hence its name convallarioides, which 

 means " like the convallaria." The two broad, smooth, 

 round, oval leaves are the characteristic sign, and at first 

 sight a novice is apt to think he has found one wild Lily-of- 

 the-Valley, until he notices that the leaves spring from their 

 base. Sometimes they are slightly cordate or kidney 

 shaped at their base. They are three to nine nerved. 



The plant grows from four to ten inches in height, of 

 which the flowering raceme is about one-third of its whole 

 length ; it is downy in the half above the leaves. 



From three to twelve greenish yellow flowers grow 

 upon little thread-like stalks with bracts. The flower is 

 at its largest but a quarter of an inch long, and is composed 

 of very narrow sepals and petals much smaller than the lip. 

 The characteristic shape of the lip is broad and dilated 

 and two lobed, with small ear-like appendages at its base. 

 It is not nearly as deeply cleft as in the other two species. 

 The column is larger than in either of the others, but still 

 much shorter than the lip. It has for its characteristic 

 sign two short wings that project above the anther. 



This Twayblade is not uncommon. It grows in woods 

 from Nova Scotia to Alaska and California, and as far 

 south as Vermont; but where the high mountains stretch 

 along the Atlantic coast it follows them as far as North 



