OECHID TRIBE 211 



Name from the Greek, giimnos, naked, and adcn, a gland, l)ecause the glands 

 on the stalks of its pollen masses are nncovered, and not, like those of the 

 Orchis, enclosed in a little pouch ; a circumstance which chiefly distinguishes 

 this from that genus. 



11. Butterfly Orchis (i?«Z>«w?-m). — Perianth ringent, hooded; lip 

 3-lobed or entire, spurred. Name from hahena, a thong or strap, from the 

 shape of the spur. 



12. Man Orchis (Jrcras). — Perianth ringent, hooded; lip 3-lobed with- 

 out a spur. Name from the Greek, a, without, and kerns, a horn, in allusion 

 to the absence of the spur. 



13. Musk Orchis (Hermfniitm). — Perianth boll-shaped with erect seg- 

 ments ; lip 3-lobed, swollen beneath at the base, without a spur. Name 

 from the Greek, licrmin, the foot of a bed-post, suggested by the tuberous 



I'OOtS. 



14. Ophrys. — Perianth spreading; lip variously lobcd, without a spur. 

 Name from the Greek ophrus, the eyebrow, the plant having been said l^y 

 Pliny to be used in staining the eyebrow black ; or perhaps from the eye- 

 brow-like markings of the lip. 



15. Lady's Slipper (Ci/prij^ddium). — Perianth spreading; lip large, in 

 flated ; column with a large terminal dilated lobe, or sterile stamen separating 

 the two anthers ; two lower lateral sepals often combined. Name from the 

 Greek, Kupris, Venus, and j'odion, sock, or slipper. 



1. Bog Orchis (Maldxis). 



Bog Orchis (M. ixdudum). — Stem with from 3 to 5 leaves, which are 

 oval and concave ; lip concave, acute. This rare species, which is the smallest 

 and least attractive of our native Orchids, grows on spongy bogs in many 

 parts of the kingdom. It is found among, or rather on, the roots of the 

 sphagnum-moss common to such places, bearing, from July to September, a 

 small but long spike of yellowish-green blossoms, on an erect stem from two 

 to four inches in height. The flowers are very small, the sepals egg-shaped 

 and spreading, two turning iipwarcls, their bases embracing the base of the 

 upper lip. The leaves are fringed at the upper part with minute tubercles, 

 rendering the margin roughish. These tubercles had been believed by 

 Sir W. J. Hooker to be little bulbous leaf-buds, and were fully ascertained 

 to be so by Professor Henslow, who examined some of the plants which 

 grew in great plenty on Gamlingay Heath, in Cambridgeshire. " Every 

 specimen which I gathered," says this botanist, " exhibited this fringe in a 

 greater or less degree, and it required only the assistance of a common lens 

 to show that it was occasioned by numerous little bulbous germs spreading 

 from the edge and towards the apex of the leaf. They were of the same 

 colour as the leaves, green on those which were more exposed to the light, 

 and quite white on those which were lowest on the stem, and half buried in 

 the peat and moss. Some of these germs were so far advanced as to have 

 put forth the rudiments of two or three leaves, and others less so." This 

 Orchis often forms little groups of half a dozen or more plants. John Ray 

 describes it as growing in his time in divers places in Romney Marsh, in 



27—2 



