ee Sot a. a —— 
‘Fan OO oan eee ee Oo mLS 9 aay 
- 7 ~ SE oe on 
eevee, 
‘ a 
Pea rere pease RP pt cn i en on mop tet 
OF GARDENING. 
Atuguft. properly including the Helleborine; and others 
—— are placed with the Arethufa and Cypripediumy: 
having Flowers altogether diftinét, tho’ called by 
lefs accurate Writers by this general Name. 
For the farther afcertaining this Species, the 
Bee Flower, it is, neceflary to obferve, that 
Linnzzus does not allow it a diftinct Name, 
or feparate Exiftence from the Fly Orchis and fome 
other Kinds. 
Befides the two Bee Orchis’s, we read in 
Authors of a greater and leffer Fly Orchis, a blue 
and a yellow Fly Orchis, a Spider Orchis, and the 
like. All thefe Liyw aus refers to one Head, and | 
confiders them as Varieties from the Accidents of 
Growth, all referable to one common Species. 
This he calls the Infedtiferous Opbrys and he ob- 
ferves, that although the feveral Kinds have, to 
a fuperficial Eye, very evident Marks of Dif- 
tinction, yet, on a more accurate View, they | 
will be found all deduced from one original Stock, 
and, that different as their Forms appear, there is 
no Mark of abfolute Separation. 
On this Confideration he refers them all to 
one Species; and having, by the Character of 
the Neétarium, before removed this from the 
Orchis to the Opbrys Kind, he adds, as the 
Diftinction of the Species, Bulbis fubrotundis, caule 
foliofo, neftarii labio fubquinque-lobo: Opbrys with a 
leafy Stalk, and with the Lips of the Ne¢tarium 
marked by five flight Divifions. 
‘This is the proper Name of the Bee Flower, 
this will be found to feparate it from all the other 
Species; and under this the Flies and Spiders, 
and Breynius and Morison’s Monkey and Beetle 
Orchis, will be all comprehended. All thofe 
_ are therefore to be confidered as accidental 
Changes; and although this may appear bold 
_and arbitrary on the firft Confideration, yet he 
who has feen what Culture effets upon the Flower 
in the prefent Inftance, will be eafily reconciled to 
the Determination. 
The botanical Student will not think thus 
much mifapplied in explaining the Nature of 
fo fingular a Plant, to whofe Defcription we’ fhall 
now proceed, and afterwards to its Culture. 
~ The Root is compofed of two roundifh Bulbs, 
white, large, juicy, and of a pleafant, fweetifh 
Tafte. 
~The Leaves are numerous, oblong, moderately 
broad, of frefh green, undivided at the Edges, 
ribb’d Jengthwife, and pointed. They grow in a 
various and uncertain Manner, fome obliquely, 
fome flat upon the Ground, and others rifing with 
the Stalk, whofe firft Shoot appears very foon 
after them. ¢ 
The Stalk is round, a and a Foot in 
Height, of a pale green, and juicy. 
_ The Leaves are few upon it, and they ftand 
irregularly, they are oblong, and rib’d as thofe 
from the Root. 
The'Flowers are placed at Diftances one above 
another, and they are in the higheft Degree con- 
fpicuous. They refemble in Form and Colouring 
I 
571 
the great dark Humble Bee, fo regularly, that one Auguft. 
{tarts at the Sight, and cannot, without Recol- 
lection, imagine “that they are real Flowers. - 
Let the Student underftand, that wild as well as 
in the Garden there are various Appearances in 
them, Nature {porting in an unbounded Freedom ; 
anid let him alfo recolleé&t there is more than one 
Kind of the Infect; when the Flower is in Per- 
fection, if he will bring the commoneft Kind 
‘of Humble Bee, which is the largeft but one, 
to the Plant; and he will find the Refemblance 
ftrengthened, not hurt; by that clofe Comparifon. 
The Parts are thefe: the Rudiment of the 
Seed-veffel fupports the Flower naked, for there 
is no Cup. 
The Petals are oblong: they are five in Num- 
ber, three larger, and two fmaller; and the Nec- 
tarium, which forms a Kind of Lip, hangs down. 
This is the whole Flower. 
each an oblong, narrow, leafy Film; and it is in 
the Nectarium, that we fee the Form and Colour- 
ing of the Bee: the Petals are purplith, and have 
each a Rib of green, 
The Top of the Neariurh is alfo of a aaney 
Colour, not without fome Tinge of purple. 
The Body of it, which hangs down, is rounded, 
hairy, and very much of the Shape and com- 
-mon Colour of the Body of a Humble Bee, 
ceahy and blackifh. 
~The Colour is of a different Tine: as feen 
in various Lights, and has a velvety Appear- 
\? 
ance. Upon this ground Colour there are dif- 
-pofed feveral Streaks of a tawney yellow, which 
alfo fhew themfelves varioufly according to the 
Light; and there are fome Lines of white alfo ele- 
cantly difpofed, principally on the under Part, 
and toward the Head in the upper. | 
- This is the mott perfect State of the Flower ; _ 
this Condition we are fure to find it wild, where 
all Things favour; and to this State it may be 
brought in Gardens: neither are we to fuppofe 
eye we fee the Flower fmaller, or the Colour- 
ing otherwife difpofed, that the Species is difting. 
The Filaments are only two; they are fixed to 
the female Part, and are terminated by upright | 
Buttons, which are defended by the inner Edge 
of the Neétarium. 
The Rudiment of the Fruit which {fupports the 
Flower is twifted, the Style is fingle, and is 
fixed to the interior Edge of the Nectarium,. 
and crowned with a {mall Head. 
We have told the Student that when the 
Filaments grow to the Style or female Organ, 
this Situation, and not their Number, marks 
the Clafs of the Plant. This is by that Character 
refer’d to the Gynandria ; and the Subdiftin@tion 
to which it is to be refer’d is that of Diandria, 
eftablifhed on the Number of thofe Filaments. 
This is a claffical Character on other Occafions, 
but where the Clafs is marked by the Difpofition 
of the Filaments, their Number only makes a 
Subdiftinétion. 
The Seed-veffel, which follows every Flower, 
18 
There rifes with | 
