426 73. ORCHIDACE^. 



(Hutton) may be rejected. Some other and yet unpub- 

 lished habitats have been communicated to me, but further 

 inquuy has shown them to belong to Habenaria bifolia or 

 chlorantha, mistaken for O. hircina. 



m 



1051. Orchis pyramidalis, Linn. '^ ^^^ ^■^^ y^, p/y 



Area 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8^ 10 11 * 13 * 15 16. 



South limit in Devon, Isle of Wight, Kent. 



North limit in Fife, Colonsay ; — Northumberland, Wigton. 



Estimate of provinces 13. Estimate of counties 40. 



Latitude 50 — 56. English type of distribution. 



Agrarian region. Inferagrarian — Midagrarian zones. 



Descends to the coast level, in the Peninsula. 



Ascends to 200 yards, more or less, in England. 



Range of mean annual temperature 52 — 48. 



Native. Pascual, &c. This species, like O. ustulata 

 and some other of the Orchidaceae, appears to offer an in- 

 disputable array of facts in confirmation of the views of 

 those botanists who believe that the mineralogical or che- 

 mical natui'e of the soil and subjacent rocks exerts a de- 

 cided influence on the vegetation, and even on the flora, 

 Avhich is produced thereon; its abundance on chalk, lias, and 

 mountain limestones, in many parts of England, with its 

 entire absence or great rarity in the intermediate tracts 

 where limestone is not found, can be accounted for only by 

 reference to the nature of the soil. A so-called chalk or 

 limestone plant, restricted to a county or two, may be only 

 a very local one which happens to grow on limestone ov 

 chalk ; but a species which appears and disappears repeat- 

 edly, as we cross a long extent of country, in accordance 

 with the presence or absence of carbonate of lime in some 

 state, is otherwise situate, and forces any reasoning observer 



