ORCHID TRIBE 223 



lax spike of yellowish-green flowers, which have a very sweet odour by day, 

 but which, like several green flowers, have a stronger scent in the evening, 

 though we cannot describe it as agreeable at that time. The lip of the 

 blossom has its middle lobe deeply cleft, and margined with purplish-brown ; 

 but occasionally the lip is crimson, and the green helmet is often marked 

 with lines of this hue. We have often witnessed the disappointment of those 

 who looked for the first time on this plant, aud could trace little of that 

 similitude to which it owes its familiar name. On observing it closely, however, 

 one may detect some resemblance to the human figure, with the head enclosed 

 in a casque ; but for that likeness to animated nature which some of the 

 Orchids exhibit, we must, among our British flowers, look to the genus 

 Ophrys. There is no spur to this flower. 



13. Musk Orchis {Herminium). 



Green Musk Orchis (//. monurchis). — Lip 3-lobed, middle lobe the 

 longest; sepals ep-^'-shaped, shorter than the petals; root-leaves usually two, 

 lanceolate-oblong, a small leaf on the stem ; tubers egg-shaped, far asunder 

 at the end of thick fibres. This little Orchis bears a slender spike of greenish 

 flowers in June and July. The stem is from five to ten inches in height, and 

 very slender. It grows on chalky pastures south of Cambridge, Norfolk, 

 and Gloucester. The minute flowers produce neither spur nor honey, Ijut at 

 night they give out the odour of musk, and this attracts a large number of 

 small fry in the way of tiny beetles and flies which fertilize the flowers. 



14. Ophrys {Ophrys). 



1. Bee Orchis {0. apifcra). — Lip swollen, 3-cleft, the intermediate lobe 

 recurved rrfc the margin, with a long awl-shaped reflexed appendage in the 

 notch ; petals oblong, bluntish, downy ; tubers egg-shaped. Anyone who 

 even glanced at this pretty wild flower might imagine a large velvety bee 

 was sitting on it. On many chalky fields south of Durham and Lancaster 

 it is not infrequent ; also in the middle and south of Ireland, and in the 

 Channel Islands. The stem is about a foot high, bearing a few distant 

 flowers in June and July. The sepals, which look like delicate wings, are 

 either greenish-white or of a pale or deeper lilac tint ; and the little oblono- 

 petals are of the same hue ; while the lip, which represents the body of the 

 insect, is brown, variegated with yellow, and soft and velvety. The author 

 has found it near Dover with snow-white blossoms, but fears to indicate the 

 spot, lest some ruthless collector should extirpate it. Linni3eus named this 

 species 0. insecHfem : and certainly this, the Fly Orchis, and in a less degree 

 the Spider Orchis, bear a resemblance to the insect race. But many foreign 

 Orchids exhibit similarities, no less striking, to butterflies, spiders, frogs, and 

 other living creatures. The purpose of this singular resemblance is by no 

 means clear. It has been suggested that it was to attract bees, and also to 

 drive them away. It would certainly appear that the visits of bees are not 

 required, for not only is there no honey and no spur, but the pollinia are 

 not meant to be removed; they are on long stalks, and ultimately fall 

 forward upon the stigma, thus securing self-fertilization. 



2. Late Spider Orchis {0. arachnites). — Lip somewhat swollen, with 



