no FLOWERS OF THE WOODS AND COPSES 



Listera, R. Brown, is the name by which Dr. Martin Lister 

 (d. 1711) is honoured, and the second Latin name refers to the shape 

 of the leaves. 



This orchid is called Bifoil, Double-leaf, Dufoil, Herb Bifoil, T way- 

 blade, Twifoil. 



From its interesting mode of pollination it is worth cultivating, and 

 requires sandy, clayey, or peaty loam. 



ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: 



289. Listera ovata, Br. Stem erect, pubescent, leaves in opposite 

 pairs, ovate, flowers in a lax spike, green, sticky, column crested. 



Bee Orchis (Ophrys apifera, Huds.) 



As a more or less southern type we find no record of its occurrence 

 earlier than the present day. It ranges in the N. Temperate Zone in 

 Europe from Belgium southwards, and in N. Africa. In Great Britain 

 it is found in the Peninsula province, except in E. Cornwall; in the 

 Channel province, Thames, and Anglia province, not in Hunts; in the 

 Severn province; in S. Wales only in Glamorgan and Pembroke; in 

 N. Wales, not in Montgomery, Merioneth; in the Trent province and 

 Mersey provinces, not in Mid Lanes; in the H umber province in 

 Durham and Cumberland; and in Lanark. From Durham and Lanark 

 it is general elsewhere to the south coast. In the N. of England it 

 grows at 1000 ft. In South and Mid Ireland it is found on limestone 

 and sandhills. 



The Bee Orchis is one of those characteristic plants which depend 

 on a certain type of geological formation for their distribution, more 

 than others. Thus it is found almost exclusively on hills composed of 

 chalk or limestone, or in woods and copses on the same formations. 

 It is rarely found on sandy soil or pure peat or loam. The stem is 

 leafy, with sheathing leaves, egg-shaped, lanceolate, oblong, silvery 

 below, and with linear veins. The bracts or leaflike organs are large, 

 green, sheathing, equalling the flowers. 



As the second Latin (and English) name implies the flower has the 

 form of a bee. Three to six flowers are arranged in a spike, and they 

 are purple, with a 5-lobed swollen lip, the two lower lobes marked, 

 smaller, hairy at the base, the intermediate ones turned back, oval, and 

 hollow. 



The Bee Orchid is about i ft. high. Flowers may be found in 

 June and July. The plant is perennial, and propagated by division 

 of the root. 



