46 NOTES ON BRITISH ORCHIDS. [May 



Ordinary stamens consist of a lilament, or supporting thread (rarely 

 seen in British orchids), which carries the anther; and within the 

 anther lies the pollen or male vivifying element. The anther is 

 divided into two cells, which are very distinct in most orchids, so 

 much so as to appear in some species like two separate anthers. 

 The pollen in all common plants consists of fine granular powder ; 

 but in most orchids the grains cohere in masses, wdrich are often 

 supported by a very curious appendage called the caudidc. Orchids 

 properly have three pistils or female organs, united together, the upper 

 and anterior surfaces of two of wdiich form the two stigmas. But 

 the two are often completely confluent so as to appear as one. The 

 stigma is penetrated in the act of fertilization by long tubes, emitted 

 by the pollen grains, which carry the contents of the grains down to 

 the ovules or young seeds in the ovarium. The upper stigma is 

 modified into an extraordinary organ called the rostellmn, which in 

 many orchids presents no resemblance to a true stigma. When 

 mature, it either includes or is altogether formed of viscid matter." 



The ovary or seed vessel is a one- celled three- valved inferior 

 twisted capsule, containing numerous very minute seeds, appearing 

 like fine sawdust, attached to the valves. 



British orchids have been divided into sixteen "enera, and these 

 again sub-divided into about forty species, of which the following is 

 a brief, description, the result of several years' close personal obser- 

 vation : — 



Genus 1. — Orchis. — Sepals and petals nearly equal, arching over the column. 

 Lip turned downwards, spurred on the under side at the base and lobed or 

 crenated. Anther with two erect cells, on the face of the column, converging 

 together at the base, with an erect process, each cell containing a pollen mass, 

 contracted below into a short stalk, terminating in a gland or viscid disc. Eoot 

 a fleshy tuber either entire or j^almate. Stem leafy, with a terminal spike of 

 flowers. 



Included in this genus there are a dozen species — O. mascula, O. maculata, 

 O. latifolia, O. morio, O. pyramidalis, 0. fusca, O. militaris, O. ustulata, O. laxi- 

 flora, O. intacta, O. hircina, and O. conopsea. 



Orchis mascula (the early purple orchis). — Tuber entire, oval, and in full-grown 

 specimens about the size of an ordinary Albert. Ijcaves broad, elliptic-lanceolate, 

 with longitudinal parallel veins of a smooth, shining gi'een above, paler under- 

 neath, and usually spotted. Flowers purplish-crimson, but subject to great 

 variation, the disc of the lip alone being white and spotted, with a downy surface. 

 Lip three-lobed, the middle one cleft, and reflexed on the sides. 



Although one of the commonest, this is perhaps the most orna- 

 mental of our native orchids. It is to be found growing in almost 

 every conceivable soil and situation — from dry, arid ground to that 

 saturated with constant, though not stagnant, moisture, and from sea- 

 level up to, in this district, 700 feet — though, like other species of 

 the orchis tribe, it undoubtedly prefers and attains greatest perfection 

 in certain classes of soils and in moderately sheltered situations. 

 The largest and finest specimens of this orchid I have seen were 



