OECHID TKIBE 217 



mingled it with their sirring flowers. Spealviiig of this plant, Bishop Mant 

 says : 



" In that broad field of springing grass, 



First of his lip and horned class, 



The early- flowering Orchis show'd 



His smooth and spotted leaves, and glow'd 



AA'^ith spiky stalk elate, and liead 



Of spiral blossoms purple red." 



The succulent stem is about a foot high, generally more slender than that of 

 the last species, and tinged more or less with purple. The upper leaves 

 mostly clasp the stem ; the lower ones are oval-lanceolate, of a bright glossy 

 green, generally spotted with dark purple. The flowers form a loose spike, 

 each flower rising from a somewhat twisted ovary, and having a long spur 

 turning upwards. Their colour is usually of a rich reddish-purple, but it is 

 sometimes very pale, the centre of the lip whitish at the base, spotted, and 

 downy, and the sepals are without veins. The flowers are in the daytime 

 slightly fragrant ; but in the evening the odour increases, and becomes, if 

 exhaled in an apartment, most powerfully disagreeable, and reminiscent of 

 cats. 



All the European species of the genus Orchis have underground stems 

 in the form of tubers, sometimes entire, and sometimes divided, and furnished 

 with thick fleshy filjres. One of these tubers is destined to outlive the 

 other ; and on examination, we find one of them plump and vigorous, while 

 the other is wrinkled and withering, about to be succeeded, however, by a 

 new one on the opposite side. The plump knob is, in fact, an ofTset of the 

 other, and has a new white bud rising on the top of it, from which the stem 

 of next year is destined to emerge. In consequence of this mode of growth, 

 the actual position of the Orchis plant is changed about half an inch every 

 year ; for the new tuber invariably takes its origin from a point in the solid 

 one exactly opposite to the decayed one, and thus — 



" The Orchis takes 

 Its annual step across the earth ;" 



and it will be found, in the course of a dozen years, to have moved several 

 inches from its original station. 



The roots of this and the Green-winged Meadow Orchis furnish the. 

 substance called "salep," which was long imported from Turkey and other 

 parts of the Levant, until it was discovered that our native plants could 

 supply it. Salep is little used now in this country ; but, less than a century 

 since, the Saloop-house was much frequented, and the substance was a 

 favourite repast of porters, coal-heavers, and other hard-working men. It 

 is said to contain more nutritious matter, in proportion to its bulk, than any 

 other known root, and an ounce of salep was considered to aff'ord suppoi't to 

 a man for a day ; hence, those who travel in uninhabited countries have 

 greatly prized so portable a vegetable food. It is still much used in Eastern 

 countries ; and a friend of the author's, long resident in India, remarks in a 

 letter : " Many a good basin of the thick salab gruel, prepared from the 

 ground, dried root of an Indian Orchis, have I swallowed, and found highly 

 nutritious. It is called in Hindustani, Salab-ee-misree ; hence, I suppose, 



III.— 28 



