n ORCHIDACE^ 405 



to set. Hence, perhaps, the reason which accounts for 

 the insects being compelled to pierce the tissues, and 

 suck out the sweet sap more slowly. 



The seeds are small and numerous. Darwin states 

 that one spike of O. mascula would produce over 

 186,000; and he calculates that if they all grew, the 

 great-grandchildren of a single plant would be sufficient 

 to clothe the entire earth with one uniform green 

 carpet ! 



0. hircina (Lizard Orchis). — Though common in some 

 parts of Europe, this species is very rare in England. 

 It has been found in Kent and Surrey, but often only a 

 single plant. Through the kindness of Mrs. Drax I saw 

 one in 1899 at OUantigh Towers, near Wye in Kent, but 

 though a careful search was made only a single plant 

 was found. 



Gymnadenia 



G. conopsea. — This species has an even longer spur 

 than Orchis pyramidalis, and is even more sweet- 

 scented. The flowers are red or white ; the red ones 

 probably adapted to butterflies, the white ones to 

 moths (see Lychnis, p. 107). It secretes so much 

 nectar that the spur is sometimes half full. H. 

 Miiller records no less than twenty-six species of butter- 

 flies which he saw visiting this Orchid. 



Habenaria 



This genus, in which Gymnadenia is generally in- 

 cluded, hardly seems to me to be sufficiently distinct 

 from Orchis. The main difference, says Bentham, is 

 that " the anther cells, instead of converging at the base, 

 are either parallel or more or less diverging." 



H. chlorantha. — The flowers are greenish, and the 

 spur is 23-43 mm. in length. The anther cells are 

 widely separated ; the poUinia slope backwards, and are 

 much elongated ; the viscid disk is circular, and pro- 

 longed on its imbedded side into a short drum-like pedicel. 

 When exposed to the air this drum contracts on one 



