IRIS FAMILY 



473 



floivers white, very fragrant in the evening ; sepals spreading ; lip 

 linear, strap-shaped, entire ; spur slender, spreading, twice as long 

 as the ovary ; anther-chambers 

 parallel. — Moist heaths and 

 the borders of woods ; com- 

 mon. — Fl. June, July. Peren- 

 nial. 



6. H. virescens (Greater 

 Butterfly Orchis). — A closely 

 allied but larger species, with 

 larger, greener flowers, broader 

 lateral sepals, a stouter spur 

 bending downwards, and 

 anther-ch ambers diverging at 

 the base.^ — In more moist 

 situations ; almost equally 

 common. — Fl. July, August. 

 Perennial. 



i6. — Cypripedium (Lady's 

 Slipper), represented by only 

 one species in Britain, C. 

 Calceolus, one of the rarest, 

 most beautiful, and interesting 

 of our native plants ; has a 

 creeping rhizome ; a downy 

 stem about a foot high, bearing 

 3 or 4 large, ovate, acuminate, 

 ribbed leaves and i or 2 large 

 flowers with broad, spreading, 

 reddish - brown sepals and 

 petals; and the distinctive 

 large inflated lip of a pale 

 yellow. — Woods on limestone in the north of England ; very rare. 

 (Name from the Greek Kupris, Venus, podion, a slipper.) — Fl. 

 May, June. Perennial. 



habenAria bifolia 

 (Lesser Butterfly-Orchis). 



Ord. LXXIX. Iride^. — Iris Family 



A considerable Order of herbaceous plants with fleshy, under- 

 ground stems; long, narrow, often sword-shaped, and equitant 

 leaves, and showy flowers ; perianth superior, petaloid, of 6 

 leaves in 2 alternating whorls, imbricate, and often persistent; 

 stamens 3, with extrorse anthers ; ovary inferior, 3-chambered, 



