54 



FLOWERS OF THE HILFS AND DRY I'LACES 



Musk Orchid ( 1 iLTininium MiHiorchis. Mr.) 



In spite of its distribution to-day as an Arctic plant in Temperate 

 and Arctic Europe, except Spain, Siberia, and the Himalayas, there is 

 no record of this Orchid in early deposits with others of its kind. 

 though, it is true, as a rule chalk plants do not occur. In Great 

 Pjritain it is found in the Peninsula province only in N. Somerset; in 



the Channel province it is 

 absent from S. Wilts, Isle 

 ol \\ iL;ht, but occurs gener- 

 ally in the Thames province; 

 in Anglia everywhere except 

 T'. Suffolk, E. Norfolk, Bed- 

 tord, I hints; in the Severn 

 jjrovince in ]\. Gloucs. It is 

 thus distrilnited in S. and E. 

 England from Norfolk, Cam- 

 bridge, and Gloucester to 

 Sussex and Kent. 



The Alusk Orchis, even 



more than the Bee Orchis 



and kindred species of the 



chalk -formation, is restricted 



to the neighbourhood of those 



lofty hills or downs of South 



and East England which form 



so characteristic a feature of 



the landscape. 



Musk Orchis has a slender flowering stem, with lance-shaped. 



paired radical leaves, oblong, acute. The stem -leaves are solitary. 



The bracts equal the ovary, and are green. 



The flowers are green, all turned one way, in a slender loose spike, 

 with green egg-shaped sepals, the petals lobed each side, not so broad, 

 but longer. The lip is 3-lobed, narrow, the middle one the longest and 

 narrowest, and entire. There is no spur or rostellum. The tubers are 

 like a bed-post, hence the first (ireek name. 



Musk Orchis is 6 in. in height. It flowers in June and Julw It is 

 perennial, and propagated from tubers. 



The floral mechanism is like that of Orchis, but the flowers are 

 smaller, and there is no rostellum. They are pollinated by flies, which 



i ,.:.• It, .SiDi.LTul!'.' H.i^lii 



MrsK Orchid {Hcnninium Moiiorrliis, Br.) 



