146 OUR NATIVE ORCHIDS 



be so widely spread, is not able to cope with competition in 

 the shape of more alluring flowers that attract insects, or 

 else it does not find congenial soil. 



The Crane-fly is one of the three American species of 

 orchids that send up a single leaf in the autumn. The 

 other two are Calypso and the Puttyroot. The Crane-fly 

 puts forth a smooth, ovate-pointed, young, reddish-purple 

 leaf about the middle of September. As it attains its full size 

 it turns dark green and frequently lasts through the winter. 



The following July the flower scape appears. It springs 

 from the solid bulb or corn that forms the root, and of which 

 several sometimes grow in a cluster. It rises to a height of 

 fifteen or twenty inches, and is flowered along the upper leaf 

 with small half-inch, greenish-purple blossoms borne on 

 long flower stalks. These give the efi^ect of a very loose 

 raceme. There are no bracts at the base of each flower, but 

 the inch-long slender spur, that hangs from the lips, swings 

 between the flowers and takes away that naked look that 

 comes with a flower stalk that has no bracts. The sepals 

 and petals are purplish or brownish, and only a quarter of an 

 inch long, except the narrow lip, which is elongated and 

 three-lobed. The very slender straight or sometimes curved 

 spur is the characteristic sign of this genus, as well as 

 the bright green column that sticks out of the centre of 

 the flower. The anther has a lid under which are two pollen 

 masses, each of which is two-parted, and connected by a 

 linear stalk. The rarity of this flower has given no one an 

 opportunity to see how it is fertilised. 



