54 



FLOWERS OF THE HILLS AND DRY PLACES 



Musk Orchid (Herminium Monorchis, Br.) 



In spite of its distribution to-day as an Arctic plant in Temperate 

 and Arctic Europe, except Spain, Siberia, and the Himalayas, there is 

 no record of this Orchid in early deposits with others of its kind, 

 though, it is true, as a rule chalk plants do not occur. In Great 

 Britain it is found in the Peninsula province only in N. Somerset; in 



the Channel province it is 

 absent from S. Wilts, Isle 

 of Wight, but occurs gener- 

 ally in the Thames province; 

 in Anglia everywhere except 

 E. Suffolk, E. Norfolk, Bed- 

 ford, Hunts; in the Severn 

 province in E. Gloucs. It is 

 thus distributed in S. and E. 

 England from Norfolk, Cam- 

 bridge, and Gloucester to 



5 ' 



Sussex and Kent. 



The Musk Orchis, even 

 more than the Bee Orchis 

 and kindred species of the 

 chalk -formation, is restricted 

 to the neighbourhood of those 

 lofty hills or downs of South 

 and East England which form 

 so characteristic a feature of 

 the landscape. 



Musk Orchis has a slender flowering stem, with lance-shaped, 

 paired radical leaves, oblong, acute. The stem -leaves are solitary. 

 The bracts equal the ovary, and are green. 



The flowers are green, all turned one way, in a slender loose spike, 

 with green egg-shaped sepals, the petals lobecl each side, not so broad, 

 but longer. The lip is 3-lobed, narrow, the middle one the longest and 

 narrowest, and entire. There is no spur or rostellum. The tubers are 

 Jike a bed- post, hence the first Greek name. 



Musk Orchis is 6 in. in height. It flowers in June and July. It is 

 perennial, and propagated from tubers. 



The floral mechanism is like that of Orchis, but the flowers are 

 smaller, and there is no rostellum. They are pollinated by flies, which 



Photo. Dr. Somerville Hastings 



MrsK ORCHID (Herminium Monorchis, Br.) 



