FLY O'RCIUS.— Ojjhys musci/era. 



Class Gynandria. Order Monandria. Nat. Ord. Okchide^. 

 Orchis Tribe, 



We have five British species of the genus 

 Ophrys. The petals of the Fly Orchis are very 

 narrow, and of a purplish-brown hue, having 

 a spot in the centre, of a bluish tinge. It is 

 a slender plant, usually about a foot high, and 

 it flowers rather earlier in the season than the 

 Bee orchis. It is not, however, like that plant, 

 most frequent on hilly places and chalky downs, 

 for though sometimes found on the pasture 

 of chalk or clay soil, yet it seems more luxuri- 

 ant in our moist calcareous thickets than else- 

 where. In many parts of Kent, Surrey, Suffolk, 

 and Hampshire, it is very frequent, and no 

 one who looked on it would fail to identify the 

 species with its familiar name. 



The Bee orchis has been already named. 

 Then we have a Spider orchis {Ojj/nys arani- 

 fera), and a late Spider orchis {Oj)hri/s arach- 

 nites), the former flowering on pasture lands 

 of chalky or clayey soil, and in pits, during 

 April and May. The shape of its lip is much 



