THE BUTTERFLY ORCHIS. 76 



The Butterfly Orchis (Habenaria bifolia). 



This species is very similar in structure and habit to the 

 Marsh Orchis, but the tubers are more cylindrical in shape, the 

 radical leaves almost always restricted to two, the flower-spike 

 lax. Flowers white with a greenish tinge, the labellum and 

 spur very long : fragrant. The stigma two-lobed. Fertilized 

 by moths. Occurs in meadows, hill-sides and woods, flowering 

 from June to August. 



The Bee Orchis (Ophrys apt/era). 



In the genus Ophrys we have three species whose flowers 

 bear quite startling likeness to a bee, spider and fly respec- 

 tively. What is the purpose of this counterfeit presentment 

 it is difficult to conjecture. It has been suggested that it 

 might be to warn off or deceive insects, as the flowers are self- 

 fertilized, but Charles Darwin did not think this was the 

 probable reason. There is no spur in this group, there is no 

 rostellum, and the ovary is not twisted. The stalks (caudicles) 

 of the pollinia are so long and thin that the weight of the 

 pollen masses causes them to bend over and touch against the 

 stigma, fertilizing it. 



I. Bee Orchis (O. apifera). The labellum is very convex and broad, three-lobed, 

 of a rich velvety-brown colour, with a tail. The sepals are pinkish. The spike has 

 only about about half a dozen flowers upon it, with a large leafy bract under each. 

 Hillsides, fields and copses on chalk and limestone, chiefly in the South of England 

 and Ireland. June and July. (Plate 77.) 



II. Spider Orchis (O. aranifera). Similar to the last, but the sepals greenish, 

 labellum differently marked, and without a tail. Similar situations to apifera, but 

 much more rare. April and May. 



III. Fly Orchis (O. tnuscifera). Sepals greenish, labellum narrow, flat, brown, 

 with a yellow-edged, squarish blue patch. Strikingly like a fly. May to July. 



The name of the genus is from the Greek, ophrus, an eyebrow, said to refer to the 

 markings on the labellum. 



Several other British species in different genera from those named bear similarly 

 strange likenesses, such as the extremely rare Lizard Orchis (Orcfa's kircina), but 

 some of the foreign forms are more remarkable still. 



