m. 199
ORCHIS Schleichen.
Schleicher's Orchis.
Natural Order, O r c h i d e æ . Brown prodr. p. 309.
O R C H IS . Supra fol. 65.
O. Schleicheri, bulbis subpalmatis, scapo folioso, labello obsolete
trilobo undulato integerrimo, calcare conico, foliolis perianthii
exterioribus lateralibus reflexis, bracteis lanceolatis flore sub-
aequantibus.
Orchis Sctileicheri. Swt. hort. brit. p. 382.
Orchis sambucina. var. rubra. Schleicher’s Mss.
Bulbs large, flattish, slightly palmate, or producing
a few short blunt points at the end; when young white,
but becoming brown by age, producing a few thickish
fibres at the summit, close to the stem. Leaves lanceolate,
acute, keeled below and channelled above, smooth
and glossy, sheathing the stem, the margins slightly tinged
with brown, and curved inwards. Scape short, in
our specimens not a span high, angular, smooth and
glossy, the upper part tinged with bluish purple. Spike
short, few-flowered. Bractes lanceolate, acute, about the
length of the flowers, margins and upper side of a pale
purple, and greenish underneath. Flowers purple, different
in colour on different plants, in some altogether
purple, others are marked with yellow on the labellum,
and dotted with small purple spots. Germen angular,
twisted, a very little longer than the spur. Leaflets o f
the Perianthium lanceolately ovate, acute; two outer
side ones reflexed; three upper ones connivent, and
arched over. Labellum broad, nearly round, very slightly
three-lobed near the point, the margins undulate, but
scarcely crenulate, the point entire, not emarginate.
Spur conical, nearly as long as the germen, the point