on the Orchis militai'is. 31 



middle one broad, bilobcd, generally with an intermediate tooth. 

 The middle segment varies in the depth of its fissures, so that 

 many authors have described the lip as four-cleft, and others as 

 five-cleft ; but, when this is the case, the segments are never so 

 regularly linear as in the following species, and they are notched ; 

 and, besides, the petals are broader and not nearly so acuminate. 



Orchis militaris. Eng. Bot. t. 1873. 



Though this plant is figured by the old herbalists Gerard, John- 

 son, and Parkinson, it does not appear to have been noticed as a 

 distinct species by any English writer, until it was taken up by 

 Sir J. E. Smith in the 27th volume of English Botany. In this 

 work, however, it is confounded with another, the O. tephrosanthos 

 of Swartz. 'J'he figure which Johnson gives of it, p. 216, no. 13. is a 

 tolerable similitude, and leaves little doubt as to what he intended. 

 Parkinson has copied it, p. 1344, no. 8. and has added another of a 

 most fanciful and ridiculous kind, p. 1347, which seems to have 

 had its origin in this species or the following. Merett in his Pinax 

 tells us that Mr. Brown, one of the authors of the Catalogtis Ox- 

 oniemis, and whom he calls in his preface " vir exercitatissimus 

 et eruditissimus," found three Orchides " near the highway from 

 Wallingford to Reading, on Barkshire side the river. 



" 1. Orchis anthropophora autumnalis. Col. mas. C. B. et P. 

 1347 *. The Man Orchis. 



" 2. Orchis anthropophora orcades altera. Col. p. 318. 



" 3. Orchis oreades truiico pallido, brachiis et cruribus satu- 

 rate rubescentibus." 



'i'he O. militaris, E. B. t. 1873 and 0. tephrosanthos are proba- 

 bly intended by these descriptions, since the former is found at 



* Tliis reference to Bauhine I do not understand thoroughly, but suppose it to refer to 

 his Orchis Jiore nudi liominis ejjigiem represenlans, mas. — fin. p. S2. 



the 



