LADY’S TRESSES— continued. 
S. spiralis has also been known by the appropriate name S. autumnalis Richard ; 
for it is in August and September that its pretty little flower-spikes may be found in 
dry pastures on a calcareous or gravelly soil. It grows from four to eight inches in 
height and its slender stem is slightly pubescent. The first leaves form a rosette just 
above the crown of the root and wither before the flowers begin to open. They are 
succeeded by a tuft of new leaves which spring from the base of the old stem. The 
leaves are about an inch long, ovate, acute, and slightly glaucous. There are several 
acuminate bracts on the lower part of the peduncle and each of the tiny blossoms — 
they are but a sixth of an inch across — is sheathed in a hollowed, abruptly-pointed 
bract. In this species the flowers form a single spiral which turns either from left 
to right, or from right to left ; but in S. Romanzoffiana the flowers form three 
parallel spirals — a most unusual arrangement. 
The fragrance of the blossoms is very similar to that of the Butterfly Orchis or of 
Jasmine and, like that of so many other white flowers, is far greater in the evening. 
It has been extracted for the purposes of perfumery. Clarified fat is poured over 
the freshly-gathered blossoms and is then macerated in rectified spirits of wine. 
The popular name “ Lady’s Tresses ” is an obvious comparison of the spiral 
flower-spike to ringlets or plaits of hair. In the oldest form in which we have it the 
first word is apparently an abbreviation of the Old English possessive in-e, whilst 
the second is spelt “traces.” This is in the very scarce little “ Names of Herbes ” 
by William Turner (1548), where he says : — 
“ A certeyne righte kynde of the same groweth besyde Syon, it bryngeth furth whyte Houres in the ende of harueste, and 
it is called Lady traces/* 
Darwin’s description of the complex mechanism of pollination in this species 
is very interesting ; but we can only give a summary of it. 
The flowers project horizontally from the peduncle with the column in close 
contact with the fringed labellum, at the base of which the nectar is secreted. Below 
the backward sloping stigmatic surface a passage exists, “ so narrow that only a fine 
bristle can be passed down it.” Above and in front of the stigma is the flat tapering 
rostellum, along the middle line of which is a boat-shaped body, about one 
twenty-fifth of an inch in length, “ filled with a thick, milky, extremely adhesive 
fluid, which, when exposed to the air, rapidly turns brown, and in about one minute 
sets quite hard.” The rostellum itself “ is endowed with a remarkable kind of 
irritability ; for if . . . touched very gently ... it instantly splits along its 
whole length, and a little milky, adhesive fluid exudes.” As the threads of the 
pollinia are attached to the upper surface of the boat-shaped body, they are with- 
drawn together by the insect-visitors, leaving the rostellum as a bifid process, 
resembling a tuning-fork. 
The flowers expand from below upwards, as in most spikes, and Darwin 
observed that humble-bees visit the lower flowers first, 
