FLOWERING PLANTS. 173 
There is no question whatever that it is truly native. Gosselin in- 
cludes the name Orvchis morvio in his list, but it seems certain that he 
really meant O. /axiflora, which he does not mention, although 
it is widely distributed and common. This view is supported by 
Babington’s note under O. laxiflora: ‘This plant has been often 
taken for O. morio, which has not been observed in the islands.’ 
Orchis mascula, L. Early Purple Orchis. 
Native. First record: Gosselin, 1815. 
Rather rare: generally in very small quantity, often single plants,,. 
in each spot. I have noted stations for this species in all the 
central and southern districts, but I do not remember to have met 
with it in the extreme north. 
Called in parts of Normandy Pain de Couleuvre, or Adder’s. 
Bread. These flowers are the Long Purples mentioned in Hamlet, 
iv. 7, and the ‘grosser name’ alluded to in the succeeding line was 
in very general use in Shakespeare’s time. On the famous doctrine: 
of Signatures the old herbalists believed the Orchis to possess 
powerful properties, the nature of which will be understood by 
quoting an old author of the early part of the sixteenth century, who 
asserts that ‘mulieres partium Italiae dant eam radicem tritam cum 
lacte caprino ad incitandam libidinem.’ Britten and Holland 
(Dict. Engl. Plant Names) enumerate no less than eighty English 
names for this species. 
Orchis laxiflora, Lam. 
Native. First record: Babington, 1839. 
Frequent in moist meadows in all parts of the island, but 
especially about Grande Mare and Vazon, where at the beginning of 
June the fields are quite purple with these beautiful flowers. This. 
species is certainly the Ovchis morio of Gosselin. O. palustris, 
Jacq., was recorded as having been found in Guernsey in 1872 ; but 
it was afterwards discovered that the specimen so determined had 
come, not from this island, but from Hartlepool (see Journ. Lot., 
1873, p. 209, and 1875, p. 371): 
Called in the patois Pennecotite, or Whitsuntide. Under this 
word Métivier, a native of Guernsey, and an erudite student of the 
Franco- Norman dialects, remarks in his Dictionnaire (1870): 
‘Comme la primevére est chez nous la paquerolle, parcequ’elle 
fleurit au moment ot. nous célébrons la naissance de l’année et la 
résurrection du Messie, nos modestes insulaires ont substitué aux 
noms malhonnétes, et par conséquent intraduisibles, de l’orchis et 
du satyrion, celui de P'é époque ow le panache ravissant de ces belles 
fleurs printanniéres embellit nos prairies,—la pentecdte.’ It is 
worth noticing that in the northern parts of Normandy the 
name /entecdte is applied to the Lady’s Smock (Cardamine 
pratensis). 
