ORCHID FAMILY. Orchidaceae. 
ORCHID FAMILY. Orchidaceae. 
A very large family, most abundant in the tropics; 
‘curious plants, with oddly beautiful flowers. Perhaps 
because they are also rather rare they seem to have a 
peculiar fascination for the public; in fact almost any 
strangely-shaped flower is apt to be dubbed an orchid by 
the passer-by. They are perennial herbs, with various 
kinds of roots, some of them parasitic, usually with alter- 
nate, toothless leaves, the lower ones sheathing the stem. 
In some kinds the leaves have dwindled to scales. The 
flowers are perfect, irregular, with six divisions; the three 
sepals are alike and colored like petals; two of the three 
petals are alike, but the central one differs in size and shape 
and is called the lip. This is conspicuously colored, often 
spurred, and contains nectar for the attraction of “long- 
tongued”’ insects, on which these plants depend mostly for 
cross-pollination. The mechanism for this purpose is 
curious and interesting. The stigma is usually a broad 
sticky surface and its style is united with the filaments and 
forms, in front of the lip, a column which is usually capped 
by a single two-celled anther, containing two clusters of 
pollen, one in each cell. Each cluster consists of a few 
waxy grains, held together by cobweb-like threads, which 
run together and terminate in a sticky disk. These disks 
adhere to the insects, which push in to get the nectar, and 
are transported to the gummy stigma of another flower. 
The inferior ovary develops into a three-valved capsule, 
containing numerous minute seeds. Orchis is the ancient 
Greek name. 
There is only one kind of Cephalanthera in North America; 
with creeping rootstocks; flowers in terminal spikes, with 
bracts; sepals and petals nearly equal; petals somewhat 
united and hooded; lip more or less pouched. 
ere In dense mountain forests these strange 
Cephalanthera plants shimmer like pallid ghosts among 
Austinae the dark trees. They are pure translucent 
White white throughout, stem and all, and the 
Summer 
leaves have shrunk to white sheaths, an 
inch or two long. The stems are one to 
two feet tall and bear spikes of numerous flowers, each over 
half an inch long, with the lip shorter than the sepals and 
72 
Northwest 
