1885.] NOTES ON BRITISH ORCHIDS. 45 



cultivated. With most persons the name orchid is only associated 

 with the heat and luxuriant growth of trojoical climes, and our few- 

 native representatives of this great family are known only to 

 botanists, and by them understood but very imperfectly. True it 

 is that the majority of our native species have but little claim to 

 distinction, for the modest beauty of their flowers, although exquisite 

 in its way, can hardly bear comparison with the gay colours of tlie 

 epithytal members of the family, so that the preference shown for 

 these latter is but natural, and scarcely to be wondered at. 



The peculiar construction and mimicry of the flowers of our native 

 orchids, combined with, their delicate colouring and rare local distri- 

 bution, should, however, all serve to render these plants favourites 

 and of particular interest to the cultivator of British plants. When 

 we consider the dependency of these plants (all our native species, 

 with perhaps one exception) on insects, that the gay colourings, peculiar 

 structure, and even odour, offensive though it be in some cases, are 

 not mere adornments but of the greatest use in the fertility of 

 these plants and the perpetuation of its race, we cannot but be 

 struck with both admiration and surprise — indeed, the modest con- 

 fession of the late Charles Darwin, after twenty years' study, that he 

 doubted if he thoroughly understood the contrivances in any one 

 flower, alone shows us how worthy of the most minute and careful 

 examination this family is. 



Before entering into a description of the individual species, it may 

 here be well to give a brief outline of the various parts of an orchid, 

 which will apply to the British species generally. These are ter- 

 restrial herbs with tuberous or fascicled roots, and sheathing radical 

 or sessile cauline leaves. The flowers are solitary, spicate, racemose 

 or paniculate, and each furnished with a bract that springs from the 

 point where the flower stem joins the main stem. Perianth coloured 

 and composed of six irregular segments — three inner divisions 

 (petals) and three outer divisions (sepals). The three outer are 

 similar, and also the two lateral inner, whilst the lower inner seg- 

 ment, which is called the labcllnm or lip, differs considerably, and is 

 usually beautifully or grotesquely shaped, and often spurred at the 

 base. Although usually pendent (this being the case in all our 

 native species, with few^ exceptions), the labellum is properly speaking 

 the upper petal ; but a slight twist in the ovary has turned the 

 flower upside dowm, thus enabling insects to enter the flower more 

 readily. Darwin, in his delightful book the Fertilization of Orchids, 

 tells us that " in most flowers the stamens, or male organs, surround 

 in a ring the one or more female organs called the pistils. In all 

 common orchids there is only one well-developed stamen which is 

 confluent with the pistils, and they form together the column. 



