152 
THE FLOEAL WOELD AND GAEDEN GUIDE. 
tinged with purple, glossy green leaves spotted with purple, and 
showy spikes of pale lilac, or rich reddish purple dowers, the lip 
spotted with white. They emit during the day a pleasing perfume, 
but at night are too strongly scented to be agreeable. Each flower 
rises from a twisted ovary which serves the purpose of a peduncle, 
and has a long spur turning upwards. The roots of this plant are 
as interesting as the flowers. The plant springs from a tuber, which, 
being rich in starch, and the source of a highly nutritious substance 
called “ salep,” or “ salop,” we may regard as a miniature potato. 
In common with most other tubers, that from which the plant of 
the seasons is produced, perishes as the plant attains maturity, but 
is succeeded by another which grows on one side of it, and attains 
its full size long before the exhausted tuber disappears. One of the 
consequences of this mode of reproduction is, that the plant of this 
season is about half an inch distant from the spot whereon its parent 
BOOT OP EABLT PTTBPLE OBCHIS. 
a, exhausted tuber ; b, fresh tuber ; 
c, fibres of roots. 
BOOT OP BIBD’S-NEST OBCHIS. 
a, fibre-like tubers ; 6, fibres or 
rootlets. 
of the previous season grew, and this, therefore, is a travelling 
plant. The Dwarf Dark-winged Orchis, 0. ustulata, is common now- 
on chalky pastures, and especially in the neighbourhood of Dover 
and Folkestone. It is a tiny thing, with deep green leaves, and a 
spike of flower-buds that looks as if burnt ; but when the flowers 
expand, their large white lips may be likened to laughino- faces 
peeping out from dark hoods. The Common Tway blade, \istera 
ovata, has no beauty, but it is well worth looking for in copses and 
on the shady borders of pastures. It has two broad glossy green 
leaves, three to four inches long, placed half-way up the stenq and 
