FRAGRANT ORCHIS 55 



bear away the pollinia or pollen-masses on their legs. There is no 

 honey, hut the llower is strony-scented, especially at night. I he disks 

 are large, and the stalks of the pollen-masses are short. The pollinia 

 are attached to the joint between the femur and the trochanter of the 

 first pair of legs. The flowers are visited by numerous insects — 

 Hymenoptera, Terastichus, Diptera, Coleoptera. Ma/thodcs, Braconidce, 

 Pteronialida: During the day it is visited by ichneumons and flies 

 and small beetles. 



The seeds are numerous, small and light, and the dispersal is 

 effected by the agency of the wind. 



This sweetly-fragrant Orchid is a limedoving plant, and found on 

 lime soil, growing chiefly on limestone or oolite, especially the chalk. 



Hcn)ii}iiii)ii, R. Brown, is from the Greek hcniiiii, knob of a bed- 

 post, Irom the shape of the tLfl)ers. Aloiiorc/iis is from the Greek 

 monos, and orchis, so called from the single tuber. 



Essential Specific Char.\cters: — 



294. Herniiniiun Monorchis, Br. — Stem erect, radical leaves lanceo- 

 late, 2; flowers green, musk-scented, in a slender spike; sepals green, 

 ovate; petals longer, no spur. 



Fragrant Orchis (Ilabenaria conopsea, Benth.) 



This pleasant-scented Orchid is another Arctic plant, also a member 

 ol the chalk flora in England, of which no early record appears. It is 

 found to-tlay in X. Temperate and Arctic T^urope, in -Siberia, Dahuria, 

 and W. Asia. In Great Britain it does not grow in N. Devon, .S. 

 Somerset, Hunts, Glamorgan, Carmarthen, Pembroke, Carnarvon, 

 Flint, Isle of Man, Haddington, Westerness, E. Sutherland, or the 

 Hebrides, but is found up to 2000 ft. in the Highlands. 



Mountiiinous districts as a whole constitute the favourite habitat of 

 the Fragrant Orchis, and it is frequent on dry pastures in most parts 

 of Great Britain. It occurs also in wet places, even in marshes or 

 bogs in some places; but is perhaps more at home on the gently 

 rolling slopes of a mountain range, where it obtains the humid and 

 moist conditions it needs. 



This is a very tall, graceful, erect Orchid. The leaves are closely- 

 sheathing. The tubers are spread out from a centre. The leaves are 

 lance-shaped, oblong, keeled, acute. 



The flowers are jiink or purple or white,' and very fragrant. The 

 lip is trifid, dix'ided intf) three nearly to the l)ase, entire. The flowers 



' ButlL-rflics n:ay be alliacicd l;y the red flowers, nmllis by llie while forms. 



