ON HEATH. DOWN AND MOOR 



277 



conifers, is not uncommon on dry, gravelly or chalky downs, more 

 especially in the North. It is a profusely-branched, evergreen 

 shrub, either erect or procumbent, and usually from one to five feet 

 high. Its leaves are veiy narrow, half an inch or less in length, 

 concave above, terminating in a very sharp point, and arranged 

 three in a whorl. The male and female flowers grow on separate 

 shrubs, and are clustered in minute catkins, about a twelfth of an 

 inch long, sessile in the 

 axils of the leaves. The 

 fruit is a bluish-black, 

 berrylike cone, about a 

 thu'd of an inch in dia- 

 meter. The Juniper 

 flowers dm'ing May and 

 June. 



Passing now to the 

 Orchidacece we have to 

 note two species, the 

 first of which is the Au- 

 tumnal Lady's Tresses 

 {Spiranihes cmtumnalis), 

 a moderately common 

 plant on the dry downs 

 of South Britain, flower- 

 ing from August to 

 October. It has two or 

 three thick, oval tubers ; 

 and a slender stem, 

 from four to eight 

 inches high, with 

 sheathing, acute scales. 

 The radical leaves, foiur 



or five in number, are about an inch long, ovate, sharp, and form a 

 tuft by the side of the stem. The flowers are small, white, scented, 

 and form a single, spii-al line on the stem ; but wliile each flower 

 is turned to one side, its bract is erect on the other side of the stem. 

 The sepals and petals are much ahke. The upper sepals are joined 

 to the petals, and the lateral ones curve over the base of the lip of 

 the corolla. 



The other plant of this order is the very common Spotted 

 Palmate Orchis {Orchis maculata), abundant on the moist heaths 



The Butcher's Broom, in Fruit. 



