IRIS FAMILY 



473 



flo'ipers white, very fragrant in the evening ; sepals spreading ; hp 

 linear, strap-shaped, entire ; spur slender, spreading, twice as long 

 as the ovary ; anther-chambers 

 parallel. — Aloist heaths and 

 the borders of woods ; com- 

 mon, — Fl. June, July. Peren- 

 nial. 



t). H. lurtseeiis (Greater 

 Butterfly Orchis). — A closely 

 allied but larger species, with 

 larger, greener //wa>pw, broader 

 lateral Sepals, a stouter spur 

 bending downwards, and 

 aiither-cha//ibers diverging at 

 the base.— In more moist 

 situations : almost ecjually 

 common. — Fl. July, August. 

 Perennial. 



i6. — CvPRiPEDit'M (Lady's 

 Slipper), represented by only 

 one species in Britain, C. 

 Calceoliis, one of the rarest, 

 most beautiful, and interesting 

 of our native plants ; has a 

 creeping rhizome : a downy 

 stem about a foot high, bearing 

 3 or 4 large, ovate, acuminate, 

 ribbed leaves and i or 2 large 

 flowers with broad, spreading, 

 reddish - brown sepals and 

 petals : and the distinctive 

 large inflated lip of a pale 

 \ ellow. — 'Woods on limestone in the north of England ; very rare. 

 (Name from the Greek Kiipris, Venus, podion, a slipper.) — Fl. 

 May, June. Perennial, 



HABE.VAKIA BIFULI.^ 



(Lesser Butterfly-Orchis). 



Ord. LXXIX. Iride_€. — Iris Family 



A considerable C)rder of herbaceous plants with fleshy, under- 

 ground stems ; long, narrow, often swordishaped, and equftant 

 leaves, and showy flowers ; perianth superior, petaloid, of 6 

 leaves in 2 alternating whorls, imbricate, ^and often persistent; 

 stamens 3, with extrorse anthers ; ovary inferior, 3-chambered, 



