ace) FLOWERS OF THE WOODS AND COPSES 
Listera, R. Brown, is the name by which Dr. Martin Lister 
(d. 1711) is honoured, and the second Latin name refers to the shape 
of the leaves. 
This orchid is called Bifoil, Double-leaf, Dufoil, Herb Bifoil, Tway- 
blade, Twifoil. 
From its interesting mode of pollination it is worth cultivating, and 
requires sandy, clayey, or peaty loam. 
EssENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS:— 
289. Listera ovata, Br.—Stem erect, pubescent, leaves in opposite 
pairs, ovate, flowers in a lax spike, green, sticky, column crested. 
Bee Orchis (Ophrys apifera, Huds.) 
As a more or less southern type we find no record of its occurrence 
earlier than the present day. It ranges in the N. Temperate Zone in 
Europe from Belgium southwards, and in N. Africa. In Great Britain 
it is found in the Peninsula province, except in E. Cornwall; in the 
Channel province, Thames, and Anglia province, not in Hunts; in the 
Severn province; in S. Wales only in Glamorgan and Pembroke; in 
N. Wales, not in Montgomery, Merioneth; in the Trent province and 
Mersey provinces, not in Mid Lancs; in the Humber province in 
Durham and Cumberland; and in Lanark. From Durham and Lanark 
it is general elsewhere to the south coast. In the N. of England it 
grows at 1000 ft. In South and Mid Ireland it is found on limestone 
and sandhills. 
The Bee Orchis is one of those characteristic plants which depend 
on a certain type of geological formation for their distribution, more 
than others. Thus it is found almost exclusively on hills composed of 
chalk or limestone, or in woods and copses on the same formations, 
It is rarely found on sandy soil or pure peat or loam. The stem is 
leafy, with sheathing leaves, egg-shaped, lanceolate, oblong, silvery 
below, and with linear veins. The bracts or leaflike organs are large, 
green, sheathing, equalling the flowers. 
As the second Latin (and English) name implies the flower has the 
form of a bee. Three to six flowers are arranged in a spike, and they 
are purple, with a 5-lobed swollen lip, the two lower lobes marked, 
smaller, hairy at the base, the intermediate ones turned back, oval, and 
hollow. 
The Bee Orchid is about 1 ft. high. Flowers may be found in 
June and July. The plant is perennial, and propagated by division 
of the root. 
