ORCHIS militaris.
Narrow-lipped Military Orchis.
GYNANDRIA Monandna.
G en.C har. Nectary a spur behind the flower. Anther
parallel to the style.
Spec. C har. Bulbs undivided. Lip of the nectary
five-cleft, rough with points ; its segments linear.
Petals acuminated, confluent.
Syn. Orchis militaris. Linn. Sp. PI. 1333. Sm. Ft.
Brit. 922. Swartz. Orchid. 14. Huds. 384.
With. 26. var. 3, Hull, 194. var. 3. Siblh. 10,
O. galeâ et alis ferê cinereis. Rail Syn. 378.
W e have in v. 1. t. 16, figured the Broad-lipped Military
Orchis, or 0 . militaris /3, FI. Brit. 923 ; and as the present
plant, gathered near Dartford by Mr. Peet, F.L.S., is generally
esteemed a distinct species, and is decided to be so by the
greatest botanist in this tribe Professor Swartz, we think it
essential to make the English student acquainted with it, especially
as its beauty and rarity render it a general favourite. A
frequent examination of these charming plants in the grassy
walks about Rome, see Tour on the Continent, ed. 2. v. 2. 312,
determined me to consider them as varieties; but possibly the
acuminated calyx or petals, and the more or less linear lobes
of the lip, may keep this distinct from t. 16, which must then
retain the name of fusca, and of this the moravica of Swartz
is not even a variety, while his tephrosantos is a very slight
one of 0 . militaris. The bracteas vary in size.
All the varieties of these two species smell like Woodruff
while drying. They flower with us in May, and love a chalky
soil, being chiefly found in Kent and Oxfordshire. If treated
as mentioned in Intr. to Bot. 110, they succeed well in a
garden-pot. The reader is referred to p. 438 of the same
work for the reasons which lead us now to refer all the Orchi-
deee, except Cypripedium,to Gynandria Monandria, they having
properly but 1 anther.------According to the system of Swartz,
Satyrium hircinum, viride & alhidum are species of Orchis,
and Nature confirms this arrangement.
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