Plate 308. 
OECHIS MACULATA 3TTPEEBA. 
The many species of English Orchis, although they cannot 
vie with their gorgeous congeners of the tropics, are yet many of 
them of very great interest, and are always sure to attract the 
notice of those who, perhaps, without much knowledge of botany, 
are yet admirers of our English wild-flowers. Various attempts 
have been made to cultivate them, but not with any great 
amount of success, while the desire to possess them, and attempt 
their cultivation, has led in many flowers to the complete ex¬ 
termination of species once abundant. We remember in our 
early days that in the county in which we reside (Kent), an old 
gipsy was in the habit of gathering Orchids of various sorts 
and taking them round the country, and so persistent were her 
labours in this direction, that several species are now not to be 
found; amongst others, the Spider Orchis was tolerably abun¬ 
dant, but is now hardly ever to be met with. 
The normal type of the plant we here figure is by no means 
rare, but the variety superba has only been lately brought into 
notice; we learn, from, the firm of Messrs. Osborn and Son, of 
Fulham, by whom it was exhibited, that “it was found grow¬ 
ing wild in Ayrshire, but where and by whom we do not know, 
it having passed into our hands through the respected firm, the 
Messrs. Samson, of Kilmarnock. It is perfectly hardy, and easy 
of cultivation ; at the same time, the size of the spike of flower, 
and beautiful marking of the leaves, makes it quite worthy of 
pot culture. The plant we flowered so finely was potted in 
peat soil in the month of November, and kept in a cold south 
pit all the winter and spring, until the flower-stems made their 
appearance; it was then placed outside and exposed to all 
