80 FLOWERS OF THE FIELDS AND MEADOWS 



hence the name Adam and Eve. Children say the roots (tubers) were 

 once the thumb of some unburied murderer, and call them Bloody 

 Man's Thumb. There was a belief that Orchids sprang from the seed 

 of the blackbird or thrush. 



Jalep (Salep) was made from the tubers, and was much used in the 

 East. The substance it contains is bassorine, which replaces the starch, 

 and is dried and ground into powder. 



ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: 



291. Orchis mascula, L. Aerial stem a scape, tall, leaves radical, 

 lanceolate, with purple spots, flowers purple, in a lax spike, 2 sepals, 

 reflexed upwards, acute, lip tri-lobed, bracts veined. 



Spotted Orchid (Orchis maculata, L.) 



Though an upland Arctic type this Orchid is not found in early 

 deposits. It is distributed throughout North Temperate and Arctic 

 Europe, except in Greece and in N. and W. Asia. 



This species occurs in all parts of Great Britain, except in Cardigan, 

 Montgomery, Isle of Man, Roxburgh, as far north as the Shetlands, 

 and in the Highlands is found at 3000 ft. It grows in Ireland and the 

 Channel Isles. 



No more common Orchid is to be found than the Spotted Orchid, 

 which is to be found growing in moist places in a variety of situations. 

 It occurs in low-lying marshes, in wet meadows, or hollows in fields, 

 bordering rivers and lakes. It also occurs on hillsides in wet places 

 from which issue little rills or springs. 



The Spotted Orchid has the usual Orchid habit, being erect. The 

 tubers are palmate. The stem is slender, leafy above, solid. The 

 leaves are narrow, lance-shaped to inversely egg-shaped, usually 

 spotted with purple or black (hence maculata}. The lower leaves are 

 blunt or acute, broader toward the tip; the upper are linear to lance- 

 shaped, and like the bracts. The bracts are awl-like, green, 3-nerved, 

 the lateral veins conspicuous, the upper bracts as long as the ovary, 

 the lower longer. 



The flowers are lilac, spotted with rose or purple, or white. The 

 spike is egg-shaped. The lip is flat, as broad as long, 3-lobed, the 

 margins curved backwards, scalloped, the middle lobe narrower, and 

 about as long as the lateral lobes, which are spreading. The spur is 

 straight, awl-like, shorter than the ovary. The 3 sepals are spreading. 

 The petals are converging. 



The Spotted Orchid is about i ft. high. The flowers may be found 



