O P H R Y S mufcifera.
Fly Orchis.
/ £ Q
G Y N A N DKIA Diandria,
G en. Char. Neffiary confifting of a lip only, flightly
carinated at the back.
Spec. Char. Bulbs roundith. Stem leafy. Lip fome-
what convex, downy above, in four firaight di-
vilions.
Syn. Ophrys mufcifera. Hudf. FI. An. 391. Relh. Cant.
339-
O. myodes. With. Bot. Arr. 99a.
O. infeddifera a, (myodes). Linn. Sp. PI. 1343.
O. myodes major. Rail Syn. 379.
F O U N D in meadows and paftures on a chalky foil, but not
very common. It is moft plentiful in Kent and Cambridgefhire,
and has alfo been gathered near Tacolneftone church in Norfolk,
and about Bungay in Suffolk; flowering in May and
June.
No wonder the fly, the bee, and the fpider orchis fhould
have engaged the attention of all who were curious about
plants. Their Angularity and beauty are almoft unrivalled.
Linnaeus, milled by the variations to which fome of this tribe
are really fubjedt, has perhaps too rafhly efteemed all thofe
which refemble infects, as forming only one fpecies. Yet
furely nothing can be more diftindt than the kind here figured,
nor is any one more conftant, not only in form, but even in
colour.
Dr. Stokes is certainly right in his judgment concerning the
trivial name of this plant (Bot. Arr. 992); but in unimportant
matters ftridt propriety is fometimes obliged to give way to
common cuftom.
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