126 



HARD WICKE' S SCIENC E-GOSSIP. 



NOTES ON THE ORCHID ACE/E. 

 By H. E. Griset. 



AMONG tlie Petaloid Monocotyledones there are 

 few orders that equal the Orchidacew for 

 botanical interest and study. In the 16* or l8f genera 

 the species contained therein are thirty-six and thirty- 

 seven respectively ; this is accounted for by the two 

 genera, Gymnadenia, Br., and Neotenia, Reich, fil. 

 (both containing la. single species), in the former, 

 being included in the genus Hebenaria, Br. ; further- 



Fig. 73. — Aceras anlhropopkora, Br. 



more, Orchis purpurea, Huds., a species in the latter, 

 is contained as a sub-species of O. militaris, Linn., 

 in the other. 



All our indigenous species are terrestrial perennial 

 herbs ; a few have large showy flowers (e.g. Cypri- 

 pedium calceolus, Linn., etc.), but they are more 



usually small and less showy ; a few inconspicuous 

 flowered species are common, but the order contains 

 many more rare and local species. 



The flowers of Gymnadenia couopsea, Br., are much 

 like those of some of the species of the typical 

 genus Orchis, like 0. pyramidalis, Linn., except that 

 the spur is much lengthened ; the same of Aceras 

 anthropophora, Br., greatly resemble those of the rare 

 O. kircina, Linn. (Loroglossiim hircinum, Rich.), save 

 that they are much smaller, and the spur O. 



Aceras anthropophora, Br., is a small yellowish 

 green herb, 6 to 12, or even 15 inches high ; the 

 spikes are cylindrical, 2, 3, or 4 inches in length, 

 composed of numerous odd, little purple-brown and 

 yellow flowers ; leaves entire, oblong, or lanceolate, 

 mostly radical ; tubercules testiculate, long ovoid, 

 half to nearly 1 inch long, the younger one often 

 on an extra-prolongation, sometimes of nearly I inch 

 long (which is not uncommonly the case with Orchis 

 mascula, Linn., and some others). This species I 

 have found quite abundant on the borders of " ' chalk ' 

 and ' limestone ' downs " near Kemsing, growing in 

 company with Ophrys muscifera, Huds., and O. 

 apifera, Huds., among " beds " of the. pretty little 

 Asperula cynanchica, Linn. 



In selecting specimens for the herbarium, of some 

 of the Orchidese, it will be found advantageous to 

 obtain one with the dried stem and seed capsules of 

 the preceding year ; and if they are dug with great 

 care, the remains of the tubercules of preceding years 

 may be preserved, as with the corms of Arum macu- 

 latitm, Linn., * thus rendering the specimen still more 

 perfect and natural (Fig. 73). The stomata of the 

 Orchidacese are most beautiful objects for their study 

 microscopically, being comparatively large (Fig. 74) ; 

 in A. anthropophora, Br., they are sub-orbicular; the 

 seeds are very minute, having a lax, reticulate, trans- 

 parent testa, enclosing a globose embryo (Fig. 75), 

 which is often very small or o. 



The following is an account of an exceptionally 

 large abnormal specimen of Gymnadenia conopsea, 

 Br., I found near Shoreham, Kent, July 11, 1892, 

 and which appears to me to be an anologous "freak" 

 to that represented by the following brief footnote in 

 the "British Flora." f "A single specimen has been 

 occasionally found of Orchis and Hebenaria, in which 

 the flowers are all deformed, without any spur ; but 

 such instances are very rare." A stout herb, 18 

 inches high ; the palmate tubercules were very large, 

 the younger one being double, \\ inch across, with 

 five pairs of divisions ; the older tubercule was 2 

 inches across, with four single divisions ; the leaves 

 were also all very large but narrow. The spike was 

 4^ inches long, the flowers of the upper half of which 

 were all abnormal, without the least trace of a spur, 

 or essential organs ; they were in the axils of enlarged 



* " British Flora," Eenth. & Hook. 



f " Student's Flora," Sir J. D. Hooker. 



* Science-Gossip, October 1892, p. 218. 

 t P- 435- 



