114 IR1DACEAE. 4. Orthrosanthus . 



Pasture and roadsides in southern districts. Sept. -Oct. — South Africa. United by 

 some botanists with the E. bulbocodium, Seb. et M., of the Mediterranean region, but the 

 latest monographer, Beguinot, considers that they are distinct species. 



* 2. R. parviflora (Salisb.), J. Britten. Leaves even narrower ; flowers slightly exceed- 

 ing the spathe, 8-10 mm. long, pale-violet, the outer segments green on the outside, with 

 purple stripes ; spathe-valves both brown-dotted. — B. Columnae, Seb. et M. (1818) ; 

 Ixia parviflora, Salisb. (1796). 



Pasture and roadsides in southern districts. Aug.-Sept. — Western Europe. 



4. ORTHROSANTHUS, Sweet. 

 (Greek orthros, morning ; anihos, flower : the flowers open early in the day.) 



1. 0. multiflorus, Sweet. Rhizome short ; leaves broad-linear, striate, chiefly radical, 

 a little shorter than the stem, which is 40-60 cm. high, rigid ; flowers blue, several, within 

 oblong spathes, some of which are sessile within the subtending bract and others on rigid 

 peduncles, these bracteate clusters rather distant along the stem and forming a long 

 narrow inflorescence ; spathe-valves broad, striate ; perianths with a short tube and 6 

 ovate spreading segments ; filaments free ; style-branches linear ; capsule trigonous ; 

 seeds longitudinally wrinkled. — Sisyrinchium cyaneum, Lindl. 



Kangaroo Island and probably also in the South-East. Oct. -Dec. 



5. HOMERIA. Vent. 



Perianth with a very short tube and 6 subequal spreading segments ; filaments united 

 in a tube ; style -branches short, broad, truncate ; capsule long, cylindrical. Flowers 

 pedicellate, 2-4 in each of the cylindrical acuminate spathes, which are pedunculate along 

 the stiff flexuose stems ; leaves few, grasslike, almost radical ; corm with brown tunics. 



Leaf 1 H. collina 1. 



Leaves 2 H. miniata 2. 



* 1. H. collina (Thunb.), Vent. One-leaved Cape Tulip. Leaf solitary, ribbed, much 

 longer than the stem ; perianth-segments 3-4 cm. long, red or pink, with a green or yellow 

 base, sometimes all yellow (var. ochroleuca, Baker). 



Pasture in southern districts and South-East. Aug. -Nov. Dangerous to hungry cattle 

 who devour the tough leaves. — South Africa. 



* 2. H. miniata, Sweet. Two-leaved Cape Tulip. Leaves 2, usually bearing bulbils in 

 their axils ; conn also bearing bulbils ; perianth-segments 2-2^ cm. long, salmon-pink, 

 with a yellow base blotched with green. 



Adelaide plains and Mount Lofty Range. Sept. -Oct. — South Africa. 



Family 32. ORCHIDACEAE.* 



Flowers bisexual, zygomorphic, very rarely regular. Perianth in 2 whorls : the 3 outer 

 segments called sepals, the 2 lateral inner ones called petals, the third petal of this 

 whorl modified (except in Thelymitra and Apostasia) to form a special organ known 

 as the labellum : the latter of diverse shapes and sizes, variously adorned with 

 glandular excrescences, hairs, fringes (PI. 7, ii., I), or other appendages (PI. 8, i., ii., 

 cal). The male and female elements firmly consolidated with a prolongation of 

 the floral axis, or loosely united (as in Diuris), into a central organ of the flower called 

 the column (PI. 8, ii., hi., c). The stamens represented in all Australian species 

 (except Apostasia) by a single fertile anther at the top of the column and by traces 

 of sterile stamens or Haminodia (PI. 6, iii., fig. 9, ap.) modified into wings (PL 9, ii., figs. 8, 

 9, w.), hairtufts (PI. 6,i., 1, ap.), or other processes. Functional stigmas (PI. 9, ii., figs. 8, 

 9, st.) usually 1 or 2, situated below the anther; the upper border generally produced 

 into an ill-defined prominence or conspicuous process called the rostellum (PI. 6, hi., fig. 8, r.), 

 the latter bearing a viscid disk or gland (Text-fig. 33, fig. L, r/.) and representing a sterile 

 stigma. The pollen waxy, granular or mealy, cohering into 1, 2, or 4 pairs of variously 

 shaped pollen-masses or pollinia (Text-fig. 33, fig. 3, p.m.), elastic fibres often connecting 

 together the component parts of the pollinia and produced at their apices into a 

 strap-like extension or caudicle (PI. 6, hi., fig. 8, cd.). The caudicle when present, 

 adherent to the viscid disk or gland of the rostellum. The viscid disk occasionally pro- 

 duced backwards into 2 false -c audi cles or stipes, to which the pollinia adhere. Caudicle 

 and disk sometimes absent. Ovary inferior, 1 -celled with 3 parietal placentas ; 3-celled 

 in Apostasia. Fruit a capsule ; seeds without albumen, numerous and very minute. 

 Terrestrial or epiphytical herbs ; the former arising from creeping subterranean rhizomes 

 or annually renewed tubers (PI. 9, ii.) or from fibrous roots ; the latter from creeping 

 rhizomes and fibrous roots adhering to rocks or trees. Leaves of varied shape and 

 arrangement. 



* The Orchidaceae are described by R. S. Rogers, M.A., M D. 



