324 BRECK’S NEW BOOK OF FLOWERS. 
PHYSOSTEGIA.—Fatse DracGon-HEAD. 
[From the Greek for b/adder and to cover, as the calyx becomes bladder-like 
when in fruit.] 
Physostégia Virginidna,—Virginian Dragon-head.—A 
perennial with stems three feet high, bearing dense, one- 
sided spikes of purplish flowers, in June and July. Indi- 
genous at the West and South. This was formerly called 
Dracocephalum Virginianum, and its varieties have been 
called D. dentatum and D, variegatum. 
PLATANTHERA.—Fatse Orcuis. 
[From the Greek words for wide and anther.] 
The plants included here were formerly regarded as be- 
longing to the genus Orchis, from which they are distin- 
guished by the spreading apart of their anther cells. 
They are still popularly called Orchis. 
Most of the species are found in wet boggy ground, and 
will require a moist and rather shady spot. If the soil be 
made of peat and leaf mould, I know they will remain 
and flower for a couple of years, for I have been success. 
ful in the experiment. They are chiefly propagated by 
their tubers, which in most of the species are of a pecu- 
liar structure. An Orchis taken out of the ground is 
found with two solid masses at the base of the stem, 
above which proceed the thick fleshy fibres which nourish 
the plant. One of these bulbs or tubers is destined to be 
the successcr of the other, and i: plump and vigorous, 
whilst the other, or decaying one, is always wrinkled and 
withered. From this withered one has proceeded the ex- 
isting stem, and the plump one is an offset, from the cen- 
ter of which the stem of the succeeding year will come. 
By this means, the actual situation is changed about half 
an inch every year; and as the offset is always produced 
