A very large family, most abundant in the tropics; curious plants, with
oddly beautiful flowers. Perhaps because they are also rather rare they
seem to have a peculiar fascination for the public; in fact almost any
strangely-shaped flower is apt to be dubbed an orchid by the passer-by.
They are perennial herbs, with various kinds of roots, some of them
parasitic, usually with alternate, toothless leaves, the lower ones
sheathing the stem. In some kinds the leaves have dwindled to scales.
The flowers are perfect, irregular, with six divisions; the three
sepals are alike and colored like petals; two of the three petals are
alike, but the central one differs in size and shape and is called the
lip. This is conspicuously colored, often spurred, and contains nectar
for the attraction of "long-tongued" insects, on which these plants
depend mostly for cross-pollination. The mechanism for this purpose is
curious and interesting. The stigma is usually a broad sticky surface
and its style is united with the filaments and forms, in front of the
lip, a column which is usually capped by a single two-celled anther,
containing two clusters of pollen, one in each cell. Each cluster
consists of a few waxy grains, held together by cobweb-like threads,
which run together and terminate in a sticky disk. These disks adhere
to the insects, which push in to get the nectar, and are transported to
the gummy stigma of another flower. The inferior ovary develops into a
three-valved capsule, containing numerous minute seeds. Orchis is the
ancient Greek name.
There is only one kind of Cephalanthera in North America; with creeping
rootstocks; flowers in terminal spikes, with bracts; sepals and petals
nearly equal; petals somewhat united and hooded; lip more or less
pouched.
[Sidenote: =Phantom Orchis=
_Cephalanthèra Austínae_
=White
Summer
Northwest=]
In dense mountain forests these strange plants shimmer like pallid
ghosts among the dark trees. They are pure translucent white
throughout, stem and all, and the leaves have shrunk to white sheaths,
an inch or two long. The stems are one to two feet tall and bear spikes
of numerous flowers, each over half an inch long, with the lip shorter
than the sepals and petals, which are alike. They are beautiful
and yet not quite pleasing, for we feel instinctively that there is
something unnatural about them and, indeed, the strange absence of
any green coloring matter in their make-up indicates that they are
incapable of making their own food from the elements and draw their
nourishment from decaying vegetation, or are parasitic on other plants.
They range northward from Yosemite but are nowhere very abundant. I
found several growing near the trail from Little Yosemite Valley to
Cloud's Rest and a good many in the woods near the foot of Mt. Shasta,
where they seem to be quite common.
[Illustration: Phantom Orchis--Cephalanthera Austinae.]
There are several kinds of Serapias, widely distributed; tall, stout
herbs, with creeping rootstocks and leafy stems; the leaves plaited
lengthwise and clasping at base; the flowers with leafy bracts, in
terminal racemes. The flowers have no spur; the sepals and petals
are separate and nearly equal; the lip broad, free, concave below,
constricted near the middle.
[Sidenote: =Stream Orchis Chatter-box=
_Seràpias gigantèa (Epipactis)_
=Reddish and greenish-yellow
Summer
West, etc.=]
A handsome plant, decorative and curious in form and unusual in
coloring. It is from one to four feet tall, with a stout, leafy stem
bearing three to ten flowers and smoothish leaves, with prominent
veins. The sepals are reddish or greenish-yellow and the petals
pinkish, veined with maroon. The lip is pouched at the base, with
a winged margin and a pendulous tip, which swings freely as if on
a hinge, so that it quivers when the plant is shaken. Although the
flowers are very handsome this curious tremulous motion, which makes
them seem almost alive, gives them a quaint likeness to an old woman in
a sunbonnet, with a hooked nose and chattering jaw. They have a slight
scent and the plant is quite common along streams and in wet places,
in the West and in Colorado and Texas. Some botanists think it is
identical with a variety which grows in the Himalaya Mountains. It was
named for the Egyptian deity, Serapis.
[Illustration: Stream Orchis--Serapias gigantea.]
There are several kinds of Corallorrhiza, widely distributed in
the north temperate zone and growing in dense woods; pinkish or
straw-colored plants, more or less parasitic, with large roots
resembling branches of coral; the leaves all reduced to sheathing,
papery scales; the flowers in terminal racemes, without bracts, on
short pedicels, which turn down in fruit, mostly with a short spur, the
sepals and petals about equal, the upper ones curving in.
[Sidenote: =Coral-root=
_Corallorrhìza multiflòra_
=Reddish-yellow
Summer
Wash., Oreg., Cal., Utah=]
The curious knobby rootstock, shaped like a bit of coral, gives the
name to this strange and rather unwholesome looking plant. From living
on decayed vegetation it has lost its green leaves, and has only a
few papery sheaths in their place, and the thick, translucent stem is
pale and smooth, from one to two feet tall, pink at the base, shading
to golden-brown towards the top. The flowers, less than half an inch
across, are usually yellow, with reddish-brown tips, and the white,
three-lobed lip is spotted with purple. The buds are yellow and brown
and the whole color effect is very pretty, as if the plant were trying
to match the russet tints of the floor of the forest. The flowers vary
from several to many and grow in a long cluster, hanging down when
their seeds begin to ripen. This is widely distributed, growing also in
the East, but nowhere common.
[Sidenote: =Coral-root=
_Corallorrhìza Bigelòwii_
=Reddish-yellow
Summer
Wash., Oreg., Cal., Utah=]
This is a similar plant, but handsomer, with much larger flowers,
duller in coloring and striped not spotted. Instead of a spur the base
of the sepals is swollen over the ovary, which develops gradually into
an oblong fruit to which the flower still clings, so that the older
flowers, on the lower part of the stalk, give an odd effect of having
long, swollen necks. The seeds are small and numerous. There are other
kinds, similar in general effect.
[Illustration: Flowers of C. Bigelowii.