128 The Field Naturalisfs Quarterly May 



twigs of ruddy bog-myrtle may be added to give a fragrance 

 that would otherwise be lacking. 



When May is come it is not too soon to look for the marsh 

 orchids, two of which, at least, are sure to be found sending 

 up their pink or purple spikes during this month. These are 

 the marsh orchis (O. latifolia) and the green-winged orchis 

 (0. morio). O. incarnata, a sub-species of 0. latifolia, is said 

 by Hooker to be found only in Wiltshire, Hampshire, and 

 Cornwall, in England; and Cork in Ireland ; but the varieties 

 of the O. latifolia are often confused, and the records of their 

 occurrence are not all absolutely reliable. O. latifolia proper, 

 however, blooms a good month before its sub-species, and the 

 latter always has unspotted leaves. Towards the end of May 

 the green spikes of the twayblade (Listera ovata) lengthen so 

 as to become easily noticeable ; but the twayblade, owing to 

 its lack of bright colour, is not a popular plant with those 

 field botanists who go abroad trowel in hand in search of 

 orchids. 0. mascula, the early purple orchis, occurs on 

 many marshes, but is more a plant of the copses and upland 

 pastures than of the peaty lowlands. 



In June other orchids bloom, the most noticeable among 

 them being the spotted orchis (0. maculata). This is the 

 plant to which the old herbalists gave the name of dead 

 man's fingers, owing to the finger-like lobes into which its 

 tubers are divided. It is a very variable species both in 

 regard to its form and the colour of its flowers. It is one 

 of the commonest of our British orchids, growing in every 

 English county, and having a range in Great Britain from 

 Shetland to the Channel Islands. Of rather more local dis- 

 tribution is the butterfly orchis (Habenaria bifolia), a plant 

 more familiar to many field botanists in its woodland form, 

 H. chlorantha. This may be found in bloom in June ; as also 

 may the beautiful marsh helleborine {Epipactis paliistris), an 

 orchid to be sought in those boggy places where dainty bog 

 pimpernels trail over the sphagnum, white tufts of cotton- 

 grass warn us to be careful where we set our feet, and 

 patches of marsh red rattle, as ruddy as bog-myrtle, stain 

 the quaking surface of the swamps. 



No branch of botanical study is more interesting than 

 that of flower fertilization, and no work on this subject is 



