106 SWISS FLO WEBS. 



it has some we do not possess. The fanciful form of the 

 plant is well known, with the peculiar way in which many of 

 the species grow, as though living on air. Some seem to be 

 very dependent on soil, and will only flourish on chalk or 

 limestone. The flower is very remarkable. It has three 

 sepals and three petals, the third of which is often unlike 

 the others, being lipped, and sometimes spurred. The three 

 stamens are combined with the style, forming a column, but 

 the two outer of the stamens are generally abortive. The 

 stigma is '* a viscid space in front of the column.^' 



N. angustifolia, or Orchis nigra (Fig. 85), is an orchid 

 with a short spur, very dark in colour — purple-black — and 

 having a sweet smell of vanilla. The flowers grow in a 

 dense head, with coloured bracteas longer than the flowers. 

 The lower leaves are lanceolate, the upper linear, all rather 

 grass-like. Mountain-meadows, not uncommon. This must 

 not be confounded with Burnet, Sanguisorba officinalis, 

 which abounds in the meadows of the Engadine, and is of 

 the same beautiful dark colour, but different in almost every 

 other respect, except perhaps a slight resemblance in shape. 



Serapias longipetala, a very handsome Orchis, with four or 

 five large chocolate or purple-chocolate flowers in the spike, 

 and large coloured bracteas, is found on the uncultivated 

 hills and mountain-meadows of Tessin. The Cypripedium, 

 almost extinct in England, may be found at Creux du Vent, 

 at the foot of Chaumont in the Jura ; Saleve, between Col- 



