XVI 

 HEXALECTRIS 



CRESTED CORALROOT 



Hexalectris aphyllus (Nutt.) Raf. (Plate LVII.) 



The rich Southern woods of North Carohna, Kentucky, 

 Florida, Missouri and northern Mexico have an August- 

 blooming orchis whose root is very like the Coralroots of 

 the genus Corallorhiza. The stout scape of eight to twenty 

 inches height has scales instead of leaves; the upper are 

 sharp pointed and the lower sheathing and blunt. 



The raceme bears eight to twelve large flowers, each about 

 an inch long. Their narrow elliptical sepals and petals are 

 brownish purple, striped with deeper purple veins. The spur- 

 less lip, broad and three-lobed, has a rounded wavy margin. 

 The few tiny capsules are elliptical and nearly an inch long. 



This Coralroot differs structurally from the genus 

 Corallorhiza in many ways, one being that there is not even 

 the rudiment of the spur that in Corallorhiza forms a knob 

 on the ovary. Its leafless and chlorophylless character is 

 physiologically the same as in Corallorhiza, but as the plant 

 is more distinctly Southern it has not received the attention 

 of Eastern botanists, and nothing is known of the structure 

 of its column and of its insect visitors. 



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