OKCUIDACE^. 93 



connivent into a roundish-ovate helmet ; helmet free to the base ; the 

 sepals maroon-purple, ultimately wliite, subobtuse ; labellum 3-lobed, 

 white dotted with red, the lateral lobes oblong-strapshaped, entii'e or 

 notched at the apes, the middle lobe about half as long again as the 

 lateral lobes, more or less deeply cleft into 2 oblong or strapshaped 

 segments about as long as and scarcely broader than the lateral lobes, 

 generally crenulated at the apex, commonly with a short tooth in the 

 sinus between them; spur cylindrical, decurved, obtuse, about one- 

 fourth the length of the ovary. 



On downs and pastures on chalky and limestone soils. Local, but 

 widely distributed, extending from Devon, Isle of Wight, Sussex, and 

 Kent, north to York, Durham, and Lancaster. 



England. Perennial. Early Summer. 



Rootknobs from the size of a horse-bean to that of a small walnut. 

 Stem stout, 3 inches to 1 foot high. Leaves 1 to 5 inches long. Spike 

 at first conical and very dense, afterwards blunt and slightly lax 

 towards the base, f to 2 inches long. Hehnet about i inch long ; 

 labellum about l inch long. 



The helmet, composed of the 3 sepals and 2 lateral petals, is at first 

 very dark maroon-purple, but becomes paler as the flowers expand, 

 and before they wither assumes a white colour, and consequently, 

 before all the flowers are open, the spike is dark-coloured above and 

 nearly white below, which has been compared to the burnt end of a 

 stick, whence the plant derives its name. 



Dwarf Dark-winged Orchis. 



Frencli, Orchis hrille. Gennan, Kleinlliitliiges Kndbenlcraut, 



SPECIES IV.— ORCHIS PURPUREA. Buds. 



Plate MCCCCLI. 



Rekli. Ic. Fl. Germ, et Helv. Vol. XIII. Tab. CCCLXXVni. 



O. fusca, Jacq. Sm. Engl. Fl. Vol. IV. p. 13. Hook. & Am. Brit. Fl. ed. viii. p. 433. 

 O. militaris, var. ft, Linn. Spec. PI. p. 133-i. Sm. Engl. Bot. ed. i. No. 16. Koch, Syn. 

 Fl. Germ, et Helv. ed. ii. p. 788. Lindl. Syn. Brit. Fl. p. 260. 



Rootknobs undivided, ovate- or oblong-ovoid. Leaves oval-oblong. 

 Flowers in a dense obtuse spike. Bracts about one-fourth as long as 

 the ovary, l-nerved. Sepals and lateral petals connivent into an ovate 

 helmet ; the sepals subacute and hooded, at first dai'k chocolate-purple, 

 ultimately paler purple, and striped -with dark maroon-purple ; labellum 

 whitish, shaded with rosy lilac or purplish-lilac, dotted with maroon- 

 purple, 3-lobed, the lateral lobes strapshaped, entire or notched, the 

 middle lobe scarcely half as long again as the lateral lobes, divided into 



