Orchids

Orchids belong to the family Orchidaceae. Some are pleasingly colored, some dull, some curiously speckled and with stripes. Some look like groups of gay butterflies as the clusters flutter in the breeze, and some look like inquisitive moths. One species was likened by its early Spanish discoverers to the Holy Dove which descended at Christ's baptism. Greenhouse spec-imens are among the most required after of cut flowers and are of many colors and shapes. The tropical orchids are mostly air plants attached to the trunks and branches of trees. Their long roots are bare to the air from which they soak up moisture and food.

Orchids of temperate regions have their roots in the soil as do most ordinary plants. While not so luminous as their tropical relatives, they are very beautiful. Among the many orchids which occur in the United States some of the more colorful are the lady's-slippers, of more than a few colors, the fringed orchids, the pogonias, calypso and tway-blades. In most orchids, self-fertilization is not possible. The pollen must be brought to the stigma from a different plant by some insect. So bright are the methods used to achieve this that a study of these methods is fascinating? Many tropical orchids are now willingly raised from seeds and brought to flower in greenhouses. Several species have been much hybridized. New and beautiful forms with characteristic forms and colors never found in nature have been originated in this way.