Part II. ONONIS— OPHRYS. 263 



from being thinly overspread with glutinous hairs, and becoming 

 covered with racemes of pink flowers in summer. There is a 

 white variety even more valuable for cultivation, and worthy of a 

 better position and soil than the common form, which grows in 

 any soil. No plants can be more readily increased from seed or 

 by division. This plant is distinct from the spiny- Ononis cam- 

 pestris, which forms stems nearly two feet high, sometimes even 

 more. 



ONONIS EOTUNDIFOLIA. — Round-leaved Rest-harrow. 



This species is easily known by its roundish trifoliate leaves, 

 margined with triangular teeth, and thickly furnished with gland- 

 . tipped, slightly viscid hairs, and large and handsome rose- 

 coloured flowers, with the upper petal or standard veined with 

 crimson, usually in pairs on one petiole springing from the axil 

 of almost every leaf of the upper portion of the stem. A distinct 

 and pretty plant, hardy, and easily cultivated, flowering in May 

 and June and through the summer. It attains a height of 

 from twelve to twenty inches, according to soil and position, 

 increasing in height as the season advances. Suitable for the 

 mixed border, or rougher parts of rockwork ; comes from the 

 Pyrenees and Alps of Europe, and is easily propagated by seeds 

 or division. 



OPHRYS APIFERA.— ^£« Orchis. 



One of the most singularly beautiful of our native plants, very 

 rarely seen in gardens ; it varies from six inches to more 

 than a foot in height, with a few glaucous leaves near the 

 ground ; the lip of the flower being convex, of a rich velvety 

 brown with yellow markings, so that it bears a fanciful resem- 

 blance to a bee. Found abundantly in various parts of England 

 and Ireland, though far from common or generally distributed, 

 and met with generally on chalky hills or banks, or on a lime- 

 stone, and occasionally on a clayey or sandy, soil. It is usually 

 considered very difficult to grow, but this is by no means the 

 case, and it may be grown easily in rather warm and dry banks 

 in the rock-garden, planting it in a deep little bed of calcareous 

 •soil, if that be convenient ; if not, using loam mixed with broken 

 limestone. It will be found to thrive best if the surface of the 



