140 BRITISH ORCHIDS 



their requirements are easily provided for. Moreover, 

 unlike most plants, our wild orchids are most easily 

 moved when in full flower, subject to the following 

 precaution. The flowering stem proceeds from a tuber 

 which will disappear after the plant has seeded; but 

 beside it grows a new tuber which will send up a bloom 

 in the following season. If care is taken not to break 

 the fleshy roots of the new tuber, the plant sustains no 

 check in removal. 



The colour of the flowers of the spotted orchis ranges 

 from crimson to pure white, some of the intermediate 

 forms being beautifully pencilled or marbled with 

 darker tints, while the leaves of some varieties are 

 richly spotted with chocolate, others being pale green. 

 In the marsh orchis (0. latifolia) I have only come 

 across one variation from full red purple (dangerously 

 near magenta). The flowers of this variety are inter- 

 mediate in hue between flesh colour and vieux rose. 



A moorland meadow, such as we were in the other 

 day, is a charming sight in June, thickly set with the 

 spotted and marsh orchids, with here and there a 

 colony of the butterfly orchis {Habenaria bifolia) with 

 deliciously fragrant flowers which it would be scant 

 justice to call greenish white, though they are not of 

 snowdrop purity. The white is not clear, but is 

 redeemed from impurity by its waxy texture. Among 

 the legions of spotted orchis which enrich this meadow 

 one comes from time to time upon specimens of com- 

 manding stature and showy flower-spikes. These are 

 believed to be natural hybrids between the spotted and 

 the marsh orchis, and make splendid garden plants in 



