112 OUR NATIVE ORCHIDS 



The roots of the Peramium are thick, fleshy fibres, 

 creeping underground, that help them to hold their own in 

 spite of the lesser quantity of seed. It is possible that 

 individual plants blossom only once in several years, or under 

 certain conditions, and it would be interesting for any one 

 who had a neighbourly patch to learn the blossoming habits 

 of a dozen marked plants from year to year. 



The Rattlesnake Plantains are well established the world 

 over. There are twenty-five species growing in Europe and 

 Asia, and but three in America. They belong to the same 

 group as the Lady's-Tresses and the Twayblades and 

 Helleborine. They are all members of the group to which 

 Darwin devoted so much attention in his work on the 

 "Fertilisation of Orchids by Insects." In referring to him 

 we do not find the name Peramium in his index, and must 

 turn to the old familiar name Goodyera, by which these 

 orchids are even better known than by their common 

 American name of Rattlesnake Plantains. Goodyera was 

 the name given to them in honour of the botanist Goodyer 

 by Robert Braun in the year 1813, Kew publication; but 

 one year earlier, in 18 12, Salisbury had published their 

 name in the Transactions of the Horticultural Society as 

 Peramium. So, obeying the accepted law of priority, we 

 mus't translate all of Darwin's references to Goodyera into 

 Peramium. 



The flowers grow in a bracted spike. Each flower has a 

 broad and round-cheeked appearance, with less effect of 

 the hanging inviting lip than is usual in orchids. The two 



