from its various uses in medicine, the arts, domestic economy, in
painting, dying, cookery, and as a medicine ; it is the true saffron ;
has much less reputation than formerly ; found rarely in our gardens
; came from the East into England. Flowers yellow and
violet; leaves linear and revolute on their margins ; stigmas very
long and exsert.
The plants of this genus, as well as C olchicum, have their
germ or ovary under ground in the time of flowering ; after the
maturity of the flower, the stalk rises, bearing the germ and rudiments
of seed into the air, to be ripened. A beautiful contrivance.
ORDER 240. ORCHIDEtE. Orchis T r ib e .
Floral envelope 3-parted, 3 outer segments or sepals, usually
colored, and the odd one often uppermost from the twisting of the
ovary ; 3 inner segments or petals ringent, and the odd one or
lip often lobed and spurred at the base ; stamens 3, united in a
central column, the 2 lateral ones usually abortive, and the middle
one perfect, or, as in C ypripedium, the two lateral perfect, and
the central abortive ; pollen either powdery or cohering in waxy
masses ; ovary inferior, 1-celled ; style forming a part of the
column of stamens ; stigma a viscid opening in front of the column
; capsule 3-valved, 3-ribbed, rarely of a berry-form ; seeds
numerous ; roots fibrous or tuberous ; leaves simple, entire.
This is a large family, containing many beautiful plants, and
their flowers exquisitely delicate, and so curious in form as to resemble
in some measure a great variety of insects, animals, and
other objects. The species, supposed by Lindley to be 1500,
are spread over all parts of the world, except cold and dry situations.
Fourteen genera, as they are now divided, are found in this
Commonwealth ; for few plants have suffered such divisions and
changes at the hands of botanists, as these, and few plants have
wrought such changes in the opinions of botanists. Except
beauty, this order has very little to commend it, as very few of
the species have been found to possess any useful properties.
The order has attracted all the admirers of flowers, and received
its illustration at the hands of the most distinguished naturalists.
Orchis. L. 18. 1. Orchis.
Lip of the corolla with a spur on the under side at the base.
Its name is the Greek name of the genus without alteration ; it
embraced many species, but most of them have been placed
under the next genus.
0. spectabilis. L. Showy Orchis. Stem 6 or 8 inches
high, angular, with about 2 large and radical leaves ; flowers large,
purple, and white, with a lip obovate and undivided, crenate ;
spur club-like, shorter than the ovary; few-flowered ; shaded
woods ; June.
Its short stem, large,' oval, smooth, green leaves, splendid
flowers of delicate texture and elegant hue, and its fascicled roots,
call forth the admiration of children as they gather the plant.
O. tridentata. Willd. A small, erect, and leafy plant, bearing
its small flowers somewhat in the form of a trident, so as to
remind one at once of its, shape. In wet upland meadows, by
rivulets, on a sandy,bottom in Berkshire County ; also near New
Bedford ; relatively rare ; usually placed in the following genus.
H abenaria. Willd. 18. 1. Orchis.
Lip spurred on the upper side at the base beneath; corolla
ringent, as in the preceding.
Named from the Latin for thong or rein, on account of the
form and shape of the long spur. Many species belong to North
America ; 12 are credited to this State.
H. fimbriata. R. Br. Fringed Orchis, because of the numerous
fringed segments of the lip, or lower petal; is an elegant
plant, a foot or more high, with broad-lanceolate leaves, bearing
a spike of rather dense purple flowers, everywhere arresting
the attention by its beauty ; wet meadows ; July. This, according
to Gray, should be H. Psycodes. Am. Journ. Sc., xxxviii.
310.
H. grandiflora. Torr. Large Flowering Orchis. This spe