THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 
151 
If we were attracted to the copse by the Orchids, we might not 
deem it waste of time to gather a tuft of Woodruff, Asperula odorata, 
both for its elegant clusters of white flowers, and the delightful odour 
it will impart to linen, books, etc., if placed amongst them while 
fresh and there left to wither. Its whorled leaves afford a sufficient 
character for readily determining it, independent of its neat little 
compact, w'ax-like, white flowers. 
The Orchids constitute a large group of plants, notably in popular 
estimation for the various resemblances of their flowers to insects, 
birds, and even larger animals. Ours are the very humblest of the 
family, but from them we may learn useful lessons to aid us in the 
investigation of the whole race, or, at the very least, to enhance our 
enjoyment of the lovely Dendrobes, Oncids, and Cattleyas of the 
garden. Every orchid flower consists hypothetically of fifteen parts, 
namely, three sepals, three petals, three stamens, three pistils, and 
COMMON PUBPLE OB MEADOW OBCHIS. 
1 1, pieces of the perianth, comprising both sepals and petals ; 
2, pollen pouches ; 3, stigma ; 4, spur ; 5, twisted ovary supporting 
blossom ; G, bract ; 7, waxy pollen masses. 
three carpels. But the several genera exhibit every imaginable 
variation of the hypothetical characters. Thus, the labellum, or lip, 
which is in many instances the largest, most highly-coloured, and 
most prominent feature, is but one of the petals curiously modified. 
The three sepals are usually equal in size and shape, and therefore 
easily determinable. Instead of three stamens there is commonly 
only one produced, and this is usually combined with one or more 
pistils, forming what is called the column. In the noblest of the 
British Orchids, the Ladies’ Slipper, Cyprepedium calceolus, two 
stamens are fully developed, and the third occurs in a sterile 
condition between them forming the column. 
One of the commonest Orchids in flower now is the Common 
Purple or Meadow Orchis, O. mascula, which has a succulent stem 
May 
