148 THE MUSIC OF WILD FLOWERS 



should be found among the British orchids, the most 

 highly developed of our entomophilous plants. There 

 is much in connection with this fascinating order that 

 is obscure, including the strange colouring of some of 

 the species. Why, for instance, should the twayblade, 

 abundant in our Hampshire woods, and the frog-orchis, 

 common on the downs about Winchester, have deliber- 

 ately adopted, as their normal colouring, a green or 

 yellowish-green ? But, not to enter upon the wide sub- 

 ject of degeneration, the tendency of individual plants 

 of several species to relapse in colour to white blossoms 

 is well recognised among botanists. White specimens 

 of the purple meadow-orchis and of the sweet-scented 

 orchis are found every year. On the down of the Isle 

 of Wight, where the very rare green-man orchis grows, 

 I found many pure white specimens of the spotted 

 orchis. The early purple orchis and the pyramidal 

 orchis both show the same tendency. But more inter- 

 esting is the case of the bee-orchis. In an old list of 

 Hampshire plants, made in the eighteenth century, the 

 compiler, who afterwards became Dean of Winchester, 

 specially mentions a down near Petersfield where white 

 specimens were to be found. A fine plate represents 

 the strange variety, and a note is added to the effect 

 that the plant is " a new one not found in any other 

 work. ' ' More than a hundred years later it so happened 

 that I became vicar of the parish in which the locality 

 in question is situated, and one day towards the end of 

 June I climbed with eager steps the steep ascent, 

 wondering whether the white bee-orchis still main- 

 tained its old position. The down was indeed a rich 

 one as regards its flora. The fragrant orchis very 

 fine specimens, some, too, with white flowers was 



