Wild Flowers as They Grow 



since the colleagues it has chosen in the animal 

 world to work out its plans are the butterflies by 

 day and the moths by night, whose touch is as 

 gossamer and whose probosces are of infinite deMcacy, 

 it stands to reason that its elaborate mechanism 

 must be of the finest possible order. Bees that 

 are favoured by many a delicate flower seem coarse 

 and clumsy when the Pyramid Orchis is in question. 

 That the plant is very beautiful our illustration 

 well shows. " I know of no more beautiful sight 

 in the floral Une than to see a gently undulating 

 grassy hiUside decked and furnished with the rich 

 rose-coloured flowers of the orchis in question, and 

 interspersed at irregular intervals with patches of 

 the deep-blue flowers of the devil's bit," says one 

 writer.* The leaves are the palest green and 

 unspotted, and their long, lance-shaped blades make 

 a lovely contrast to the vivid blossoms. When the 

 spikes of rose-red flowers first open, each is a perfect 

 pyramid, rather short, with a broad base. Fully 



* Webster, ff British Orchids." 

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