3 I2 



monotr6peje 



i. M. uniflora (Single-flowered Winter-green). — A remarkably 

 pretcy plant, with several roundish, smooth, serrate, radical leaves, 

 and a single, large, elegant, white, highly fragrant, long-stalked 

 flower. — Woods in the north of Scotland ; rare. — Fl. July. 

 Perennial. 



Ord. XLV. Monotr6pEjE. 



The Bird's-nest Family 



little or no 

 upon dead 



A small group of brown saprophytic herbs, with 

 chlorophyll, living in and 

 leaves in woods in the North Temperate 

 Zone. They have fleshy, scaly rhizomes ; 

 unbranched stems; scattered leaves re- 

 duced to 9cales ; flowers generally in 

 racemes, campanulate, 4 — 6-merous ; 

 stamens 8 — 10, hypogynous ; anthers 

 kidney-shaped, 1 -chambered ; ovary 4 — ■ 

 5-chambered, superior ; style single ; 

 stigma flat ; ovules many in each chamber, 

 axile ; capsule 5-valved, loculicidal ; seeds 

 minute, with a loose testa. 



1. Mon6tropa (Bird's-nest). — Termi- 

 nal flower 5-merous ; lateral ones 4- 

 merous ; sepals and petals membranous, 

 saccate at the base ; stamens 10 in the 

 terminal, 8 in the lateral flowers ; stigma 

 not lobed. (Name from the Greek mbnos, 

 one, trope, turning, from the unilateral 

 position of the flowers. 



1. M. Hypopitys (Fir-rape, Pine Bird's- 

 nest). — The only British species, with an 

 unbranched juicy stem, clothed through- 

 out with scaly bracts, and terminating in 

 a drooping, one-sided raceme of brownish- 

 yellow flowers, which eventually turn 

 almost black. — Woods near the roots of 

 Fir and Beech ; local. This plant must 

 not be confounded with the Bird's-nest 

 Orchis (Neottia Nidus-avis) or with the 

 Broom-rapes (Orobdnche), in both of 

 which the flowers are monosymmetric, 

 the former 3-merous, the latter bilabiate 

 June — August. Perennial. 



mon6tropa hyp6pitys 

 (Pine Bird's-nest, Firrajx). 



and didynamous. — Fl. 



