222 ORCHIDE^ 



3. Entire Habenaria {H. intacta). — Lip 3-lobed, projecting, the lateral 

 lobes short and slender, petals pointed ; sepals darker than the pinkish petal, 

 and spotted lip ; spur somewhat globose ; tubers egg-shaped, entire. This 

 rare plant is very similar in general habit to H. albida, but it is smaller, 

 ranging from four to ten inches in height. The three or four oblong — often 

 spotted — leaves are arranged in a rosette. The flowers are arranged in a 

 dense-flowered spike, that is sometimes twisted, and they open in June. The 

 plant, which is found on limestone pastures in Mayo and Galway only, has 

 been a veritable shuttlecock for the systematic botanists, Sir Joseph Hooker 

 remarking that it has been referred to no less than seven genera in suc- 

 cession. 



4. Lesser Butterfly Orchis {H. hi/dlia). — Spur twice as long as the 

 ovary ; petals converging, blunt ; lip linear, entire, blunt ; leaves generally 

 two, elliptical, tubers lobed. This, though a singular and lovely flower, 

 would scarcely suggest the idea of a broad-winged butterfly, though it might 

 remind us of a smaller winged insect. The stem, which is slender and 

 angular, is about a foot high, and the loose spike of white or greenish-white 

 blossoms is about four or five inches long, expanding from June to August. 

 The corollas are remarkable for their length of spur, and the strap-shaped 

 lower lip. The spur is so long and slender that bees find it not worth their 

 while to visit the flowers, which can only be fertilized by butterflies or moths. 

 Its white hue suggests, in connection with the foregoing fact, that night- 

 flying moths alone are wanted, and this is made the more evident by the 

 flower becoming fragrant at night only. The two broad leaves are bright 

 green ; the bracts are narrow and lanceolate. The plant is common in moist 

 woods, and on heaths. 



5. Great Butterfly Orchis (H. chlordntha). — Spur twice as long as the 

 ovary, expanded at tip and decurved; petals converging, blunt, larger and 

 proportionately broader than in H. hifolia ; lip linear, entire, blunt ; leaves 

 elliptical, and usually two ; tubers lobed. This plant is very similar to the 

 last J and many botanists doubt if it is truly distinct from it. It is both 

 taller and stouter than the preceding, and its flowers much larger and more 

 beautiful, expanding at the same season, or slightly later. Its stem is 

 usually a foot or a foot and a half high ; but Mr. F. A. Paley found a 

 specimen measuring two feet, in a wood near Clifton ; and we have observed 

 it, in copses about Waldershare in Kent, attaining such luxuriance that its 

 white flowers could be seen by moonlight, growing among bushes and ferns, 

 as we passed the high road by the wood. The spike is sometimes lax, but 

 is in some specimens crowded. It is found occasionally on dry pastures and 

 heaths, but more frequently in moist vt^oods and thickets. Hooker regards 

 it as a sub-species of H. hifolia. 



12. Man Orchis (Jceras). 



Green Man Orchis {A. anthropdpliora). — Lip 3-parted ; segments linear 

 and very narrow, middle one 2-cleft; sepals acute, hooded, including the 

 two small linear blunt petals ; tubers egg-shaped. This is a local plant, that 

 occurs only in dry chalky wooded or bushy places between Kent, Suri-ey, 

 Sussex, and York. It bears in June, on a stem about a foot high, a long 



