196 PLANTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



from its various uses in medicine, the arts, domestic economy, in 

 painting, dying, cookery, and as a medicine ; it is the true saffron ; 

 has much less reputation than formerly ; found rarely in our gar- 

 dens ; came from the East into England. Flowers yellow and 

 violet ; leaves linear and revolute on their margins ; stigmas very 

 long and exsert. 



The plants of this genus, as well as Colchicum, have their 

 germ or ovary under ground in the time of flowering ; after the 

 maturity of the flower, the stalk rises, bearing the germ and rudi- 

 ments of seed into the air, to be ripened. A beautiful con- 

 trivance. 



ORDER 240. ORCHIDE^. Orchis Tribe. 



Floral envelope 3-parted, 3 outer segments or sepals, usually 

 colored, and the odd one often uppermost from the twisting of the 

 ovary ; 3 inner segments or petals ringent, and the odd one or 

 lip often lobed and spurred at the base ; stamens 3, united in a 

 central column, the 2 lateral ones usually abortive, and the middle 

 one perfect, or, as in Cypripedium, the two lateral perfect, and 

 the central abortive ; pollen either powdery or cohering in waxy 

 masses ; ovary inferior, 1 -celled ; style forming a part of the 

 column of stamens ; stigma a viscid opening in front of the col- 

 umn ; capsule 3-valved, 3-ribbed, rarely of a berry-form ; seeds 

 numerous ; roots fibrous or tuberous ; leaves simple, entire. 



This is a large family, containing many beautiful plants, and 

 their flowers exquisitely delicate, and so curious in form as to re- 

 semble in some measure a great variety of insects, animals, and 

 other objects. The species, supposed by Lindley to be 1500, 

 are spread over all parts of the world, except cold and dry situa- 

 tions. Fourteen genera, as they are now divided, are found in this 

 Commonwealth ; for few plants have suffered such divisions and 

 changes at the hands of botanists, as these, and few plants have 

 wrought such changes in the opinions of botanists. Except 

 beauty, this order has very little to commend it, as very few of 

 the species have been found to possess any useful properties. 

 The order has attracted all the admirers of flowers, and received 

 its illustration at the hands of the most distinguished naturalists. 



