0RCHIDACE7E. 



819 



1. Green-winged Orchis. Orchis Morio, Linn. (Fig. 984.) 

 (Eng. Bot. t. 2059.) 



Kootstock-tubers entire. Stem sel- 

 dom above 6 or 8 inches high, with a few 

 rather narrow, almost radical leaves, and 

 2 or 3 loose, sheathing scales higher up. 

 Flowers about 6 to 8, in a loose spike. 

 Bracts thin, and rather pink, about the 

 length of the ovary. Sepals purplish, 

 arching over the much smaller petals 

 and column in the form of a helmet. 

 Lip longer than the sepals, convex, 

 broadly and shortly 3-lobed, of a pinkish 

 purple, pale in the middle, with darker 

 spots. Spur very obtuse, nearly as long 

 as the ovary. 



In meadows and pastures, very com- 

 mon in central and southern Europe, 

 and temperate Russian Asia, rarer to- 

 wards the north although extending 

 into southern Scandinavia. Abundant 



in Surrey, and some other parts of southern England, and Ireland, 

 scarce in the rest of England, and wanting in Scotland. FL early summer. 



Fig. 984. 



2. Military Orchis. Orchis militaris, Linn. (Fig. 985.) 



(Eng. Bot. t. 16, t. 1873, and Suppl. t. 2675. O. purpurea and O. 

 simia , Bab. Man.) 



A handsome species, 1 to 2 feet high, with entire tubers. Leaves in 

 the lower part of the stem varying from broadly oval to oblong, usually 

 3 to 5 inches long. Flowers numerous, in a dense oblong spike, with 

 short bracts. Sepals usually purple, converging over the petals and 

 column in the shape of a helmet as in the green-winged O. Lip rather 

 longer, of a pale colour, more or less spotted with purple, and 4-lobed, 

 or, in other words, 3-lobed, with 2 lateral entire lobes and a third mid- 

 dle one more or less divided into 2, with a small tooth in the cleft or 

 notch. Spur not half the length of the ovary. 



In hilly pastures, and on borders of woods, dispersed over the 

 greater part of temperate Europe and Russian Asia, chiefly in lime- 

 stone districts, extending northwards to southern Scandinavia. In 

 Britain, limited to the counties bordering on the Thames, from Berk- 



2b 2 



