SEE ORCHIS. 147 



The bee-orchis should be searched for on chalk downs 

 and clayey soils during- June and July. Though not by 

 any means a scarce plant in the special localities it favours, 

 it is often almost extirpated in a district by the passion 

 that some botanists and excursionists have for rooting up 

 every specimen they can find, exceeding all bounds of 

 moderation, and selfishly depriving those who come after 

 them of a pleasure they might fairly claim to share. 

 When gathered the flowers preserve their freshness for a 

 long time, the buds continuing to expand. 



The tubers of the bee-orchis are of the ordinary type of 

 the genus, two roundish and unequal masses surmounted 

 by a few small fibres. The stem is a foot or so in height. 

 Near its base are several small sheathing leaves, silvery on 

 their under surface and green or brown above. The flowers 

 are large and few in number, about four or five being the 

 ordinary number. From their size and the considerable 

 distance apart at which they are placed they render the flower- 

 spike very noticeable, the upper four to six inches being 

 flower-bearing. The sheathing floral leaves from which the 

 blossoms spring are very large and conspicuous. The lip 

 of the flower is broad and convex, and though lobed at 

 the base appears almost as a simple form from the turning 

 under and back of the parts. In texture it is very smooth 

 and velvet-like, and richly variegated in colour with mark- 

 ings of yellow and brown. The flowers are without the 

 spur that is so characteristic a feature in the butterfly 

 orchis (figured in the present series) and several of the 

 other species. The outer sepals are large and prominent, 

 sometimes pale pink in colour throughout, at other times 

 greenish or white ; the inner sepals are similar in tint 

 but very much smaller. 



