46 



FLOWERS OF THE BOGS AND MARSHES 



This orchid is ahnost entirely conlincd to watery places, being a 

 typical hygrophyte, growing in wet reed beds by the side of pools, as 

 well as in true marshes and bofjs. It is associated with the Boebean 

 Marsh Orchis, Grass of Parnassus, Cotton Grass, and other typical 

 paludal plants. 



It has a slender but rigid, suberect (lowering stem, slightly downy. 

 The leaves are lance-shaped, acute, the upper ones terminated in' 



a sharp point, clasping. The 

 bracts or leaflike organs are not 

 so long as the flowers. 



The flowers are in a loose 

 spike, with green and purple 

 flowers, and slightly drooping. 

 The li[) is scalloped, oblong, 

 longer than the perianth, white, 

 with reddish streaks. The calyx 

 is purplish-green, with pale lance- 

 shaped sepals, the petals white, 

 with pink streaks. Marsh Helle- 

 borine is about i ft. high. It 

 blooms in July and August. The 

 plant is perennial, and propagated 

 by division. 



There are two staminodes 

 each side of the terminal lobe. 

 The single anther is stalkless 

 and hinged to the top of the 

 column. The lip has a hinged 

 terminal portion, which by a re- 

 bound causes an insect to fly 

 upward when it leaves the flower 

 and rub the rostellum, which e.xudes a sticky fluid and cements the 

 pollinia or pollen-masses to the insect. It is visited by the honey 

 bee, flies, Sarcophaga, Coelopa, and Crabro. The lip is long, in two 

 parts, with a narrow connecting hinge. The outer part closes the 

 flower, but an insect on alighting presses it down. 



The capsule is pendulous, and, being light, the seeds are liable to 

 fall out and be dispersed by the wind. 



This beautiful orchid is a peat-loving plant growing in an essentially 

 peaty soil. 



Hel/cborntc is an old name applied in allusion to the supposed 



Marsh Helleborine {Hcllcborinc lungi/uliu, 

 K. and B. = Epipactis palustris) 



