so Mr. J. E. BiciiENo's Observations 



information Gerard communicated of the Oniitliophora Candida, 

 ]6o, or Butterfly Orchis; but the figure is Orchis fusca : and 

 there is little doubt but that this was intended, since Johnson 

 corrects the s3'nonym in his edition, and complains greatly of the 

 transposition of the figures in the chapter in which this plant 

 stands. Caspar Bauhine, too, refers to this icon, excluding the 

 synonym, under his Cynosorchis militaris major, which is unques- 

 tionably our present plant. Johnson's Orchis Strateumatica, p. 215, 

 is an improved figure, and is copied in Parkinson's Theatrutn 

 Botanictim, p. 1344. no. 6. The description of the flower is signifi- 

 cant enough, being like the " body of a man with his hands and 

 legs cut oft." Dillenius is the next author who takes notice of it as 

 an English plant (for Ray does not seem to have been acquainted 

 with its being indigenous) ; and though his figure in the Synopsis 

 is stift' and bad, his description is appropriate — " Galea obtusa 

 atro-rubens niinusque surrecta, qua nota a prsecedente (O. tcphro- 

 sonthos) distinguitur." Vaillant, who understood the Orchidece 

 better than any of his predecessors! has given an excellent draw- 

 ing of the flowers of this and others nearly allied to it; but it is 

 curious that he should attribute to its flowers an insupportable 

 smell of the goat, while Curtis says they have a strong smell, 

 somewhat like, but not so pleasant as, Anthoxanthum. Blackstone 

 is the last English author of the old school, who seems to have been 

 acquainted with it, having found it plentifully " in the old chalk- 

 pit near the paper-mill at Harefield." Since his time it has been 

 gathered frequently in the fine chalky districts of Kent and Middle- 

 sex ; but we do not know that it is found beyond these counties. 

 Haller in his Hist. t. 31, and Curtis Flor. Lond.fasc. 6. t. 64. have 

 given superb figures of it. 



This Orchis surpasses all its English congeners in size and gran- 

 deur, and may be known by the lip of the nectary being divided 

 into three segments, the two lateral ones being linear, and the 



middle 



