FRAGRANT ORCHIS 55 



bear away the pollinia or pollen-masses on their legs. There is no 

 honey, but the flower is strong-scented, especially at night. The disks 

 are large, and the stalks of the pollen-masses are short. The pollinia 

 are attached to the joint between the femur and the trochanter of the 

 first pair of legs. The flowers are visited by numerous insects : 

 Hymenoptera, Terastichus, Diptera, Coleoptera, Malthodes, Braconidae, 

 Pteromalidc?. During the day it is visited by ichneumons and flies 

 and small beetles. 



The seeds are numerous, small and light, and the dispersal is 

 effected by the agency of the wind. 



This sweetly-fragrant Orchid is a lime-loving plant, and found on 

 lime soil, growing chiefly on limestone or oolite, especially the chalk. 



Herminium, R. Brown, is from the Greek kermin, knob of a bed- 

 post, from the shape of the tubers. Monorchis is from the Greek 

 monos, and orc/iis, so called from the single tuber. 



ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: 



294. Herminium Monorchis, Br. Stem erect, radical leaves lanceo- 

 late, 2; flowers green, musk-scented, in a slender spike; sepals green, 

 ovate; petals longer, no spur. 



Fragrant Orchis (Habenaria conopsea, Benth.) 



This pleasant-scented Orchid is another Arctic plant, also a member 

 of the chalk flora in England, of which no early record appears. It is 

 found to-clay in N. Temperate and Arctic Europe, in Siberia, Dahuria, 

 and W. Asia. In Great Britain it does not grow in N. Devon, S. 

 Somerset, Hunts, Glamorgan, Carmarthen, Pembroke, Carnarvon, 

 Flint, Isle of Man, Haddington, Westerness, E. Sutherland, or the 

 Hebrides, but is found up to 2000 ft. in the Highlands. 



Mountainous districts as a whole constitute the favourite habitat of 

 the Fragrant Orchis, and it is frequent on dry pastures in most parts 

 of Great Britain. It occurs also in wet places, even in marshes or 

 bogs in some places; but is perhaps more at home on the gently 

 rolling slopes of a mountain range, where it obtains the humid and 

 moist conditions it needs. 



This is a very tall, graceful, erect Orchid. The leaves are closely- 

 sheathing. The tubers are spread out from a centre. The leaves are 

 lance-shapecl, oblong, keeled, acute. 



The flowers are pink or purple or white, 1 and very fragrant. The 

 iip is trifid, divided into three nearly to the base, entire. The flowers 



1 Butterflies n:ay be attracted by the red flowers, moths by the white forms. 



