Part 12

Tall, stout, and leafy, 18—30 inches high, from a fleshy rootstock; stem striate and slightly hairy especially near the top; leaves alternate, sessile or short-petioled, ovate or oblong, 3—7 inches long, 1½—3 inches broad, short, acuminate, often with a twisted tip. Flowers small, yellowish-white in a close terminal head 1½—3½ inches long; petals and sepals minute, about ¹/₁₆ of an inch long; stamens 6, the filaments petaloid and about ⅛ of an inch long, anthers yellowish white.

Common throughout the region in the moist rich woods; flowering during June.

Plant 1—3 feet high, from a short, stout rootstock, covered with numerous fibrous roots; stem glaucous, usually branching below the middle, smooth above and covered with stiff hairs below. Leaves alternate, ovate-lanceolate, 2—5 inches long, 1—2 inches wide, acuminate, smooth, bright green above, glaucous beneath, heart-shaped and clasping at the base. Flowers numerous, 1 or 2 on a stem at the back of each of the upper leaves, stem bent or twisted about the middle; sepals and petals greenish-white or yellowish, narrowly lanceolate about ½ an inch long, spreading and turned back at the tips; berry ½—¾ of an inch in diameter, globose, yellow or bright scarlet.

A rather striking plant throughout the region in the moist rich woods among rocks; flowering in June.

Plant 6—24 inches high, smooth except the flower-stalks and margins of the leaves, simple or slightly branched from a slender creeping rhizome, with a few fibrous rootlets at the nodes. Leaves yellowish-green, sessile, oval or oblong-lanceolate, 1—3 inches long, acuminate at the tip and rounded or more or less clasping at the base, the margins more or less scatteringly glandular-hairy. Flowers few at the backs of the upper leaves, solitary on glandular-hairy, curved stalks ¼—¾ of an inch long; sepals and petals pale purple or rose colour, darker spotted on the inner surface, slender, slightly more than ¼ of an inch long; anthers beaked, the beaks slender; berry globose, about ⅜ of an inch in diameter, bright red.

In the damp woods in the Selkirks, frequent, growing in colonies and spreading largely by the creeping rhizomes.

Smooth and simple, 3—6 inches high, from an extensively creeping rhizome, with a few fibrous roots at each node. Leaves 4—8, bright green and shining on both surfaces, ovate-lanceolate, acute, 1—2 inches long, the upper merely sessile, the lower clasping at the base. Flowers few, about ¼ of an inch in width, stellate and solitary on very slender, curved stalks about ⅜ of an inch long in the axils, at the backs of the upper leaves; sepals and petals deep wine-colour at the base, with yellowish-green reflexed tips; stamens 6, anthers ovoid, 2-lobed, yellow and prominent, slightly below the centre of the sepals and petals; ovary broadly urn-shaped; style none; berry nearly globose at maturity and bright red.

Known only in the Selkirks where it occurs in colonies of considerable size in the rich woods at Glacier; flowering in the middle of June.

Stem 1—3 feet high, much branched and finely hairy above. Leaves yellowish-green when young, becoming darker with age, ovate or oblong, acuminate, distinctly heart-shaped at the base, 2—4 inches long, hairy, especially beneath. Flowers appearing as the leaves unfold greenish-yellow or nearly white, drooping 1 or 2 together at the ends of the branches; sepals and petals spreading half an inch or more in length, lanceolate and narrowed at the base into a broad claw; stamens exserted, anthers yellow; style simple, larger than the stamens; berry ovate, half an inch in diameter, smooth or nearly so when ripe, bright red and few-seeded.

In moist rich woods throughout the region, most abundant on the western slope of the Rockies and in the Selkirks; flowering in June.

Plant 1—2 feet high with few branches, hairy when young. Leaves ovate or oblong-lanceolate, acute or short, acuminate, rounded at the base. Flowers greenish-yellow or nearly white, 1—3 together at the ends of the branches; sepals and petals not spreading, half an inch or less in length, narrowly oblong or oblanceolate, stamens about equalling the sepals and petals; style slightly longer than the stamens, 3-cleft; berry a little less than half an inch in diameter, depressed, globose, and roughened with short papillæ.

In rich woods, most abundant on the eastern slopes of the Rockies; flowering early in June.

IRIDACEÆ

Iris Family

Perennial herbs with narrow 2-ranked, grass-like leaves and mostly clustered, perfect flowers, subtended by bracts; perianth of 6 segments, rolled together in the bud, stamens 3, inserted on the perianth opposite its outer series of lobes; filaments slender, distant or united; anthers facing upward.

Growing in small tufts, 4—10 inches high, pale, glaucous. Leaves stiff and very slender about half the length of the taller scapes, equalling the shorter ones. Spathe small purplish or green, often partly double and enclosing 3 or 4 small bright violet-blue flowers, less than half an inch broad, on erect pedicels.

Throughout the Rockies in open moist ground at the lower elevations; flowering in June.

ORCHIDACEÆ

Orchid Family

Perennial herbs, with corms, bulbs, or tuberous roots, sheathing entire leaves, sometimes reduced to scales, the flowers perfect, irregular, bracted, solitary, spiked or racemed. Perianth superior of 6 segments, the 3 outer (sepals) similar or nearly so, 2 of the inner ones (petals) lateral, alike; the third inner one (lip) dissimilar, often markedly so, usually larger and often spurred; stamens and style variously arranged. An extensive family with great diversity of flower form, and habit of growth. Most abundant in the tropics, represented in the region as follows:

Perfect anthers 2; lip large, sac-like. =Cypripedium.= Perfect anther 1. Plants saprophytic, without green herbage. =Corallorhiza.= Plants with ordinary green herbage. Flower and leaf solitary; root bulbous. =Cytherea.= Flowers several to many in racemes. Leaf only 1. Flowers white with purple spots. =Orchis.= Flowers greenish. =Lysiella.= Leaves only 2, cauline. =Ophrys.= Leaves more than 2. Stem leaves reduced to bracts. Basal leaves white veined. =Peramium.= Stem leaves not reduced to bracts. Flowers not spirally arranged. Glands surrounded by a thin membrane. =Cœloglossum.= Glands naked. =Limnorchis.= Flowers spirally arranged. =Ibidium.=

(⅔Nat.)]

Stem 8—10 inches high from a decumbent base, leafy, hairy throughout. Leaves 4 or 5, lanceolate, acuminate, veiny, 3—4 inches long, yellowish-green, and clasping at the base. Flowers solitary, small; lip obovate, inflated half an inch long, white, spotted with purple inside, particularly near the base; sepals greenish, shorter than the lip, the upper forming a sort of hood; the lateral petals white, oblong-lanceolate, obtuse, half an inch long, spreading.

In damp shaded situations, frequent in the Rockies; flowers in July.

Stem 1—2 feet high, slender, and leafy. Leaves elliptic or lanceolate, 2—6 inches long, 1—2¼ inches wide, yellowish-green, veiny, scatteringly hairy. Flowers usually solitary, bright yellow; lip inflated, curved, an inch or more long, spotted and blotched inside with purple; sepals and petals longer than the lip, laterals twisted, 1½—2 inches long, lanceolate with an attenuate tip, yellowish-green or sometimes purplish.

Not uncommon in the Rockies in moist ground, very abundant on the torrent fan among loose stones at the head of Emerald Lake; flowering in June.

Stem smooth, greenish-yellow or purplish; 4—12 inches high from a mass of coral-like roots. Leaves absent but represented by 2—5 closely sheathing scales. Flowers 3—12 in a head 1—3 inches long; sepals and petals slender, ¼ of an inch long, yellowish or dull purplish; lip not quite as long as the petals, white or whitish, oblong, nearly entire or slightly notched at the apex, 2-toothed at the base, occasionally with purple spots.

Frequent in woods in the Rockies especially those of the “Jack Pine,” flowering in May and early June.