The Butterfly Orchis (Habenaria bifolia)).
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This species is very similar in structure and habit to the Marsh Orchis, but the tubers are more cylindrical in shape, the radical leaves almost always restricted to two, the flower-spike lax. Flowers white with a greenish tinge, the labellum and spur very long: fragrant. The stigma two-lobed. Fertilized by moths. Occurs in meadows, hill-sides and woods, flowering from June to August.
The Bee Orchis (Ophrys apifera)).
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In the genus Ophrys we have three species whose flowers bear quite startling likeness to a bee, spider and fly respectively. What is the purpose of this counterfeit presentment it is difficult to conjecture. It has been suggested that it might be to warn off or deceive insects, as the flowers are self-fertilized, but Charles Darwin did not think this was the probable reason. There is no spur in this group, there is no rostellum, and the ovary is not twisted. The stalks (caudicles) of the pollinia are so long and thin that the weight of the pollen masses causes them to bend over and touch against the stigma, fertilizing it.
I. Bee Orchis (O. apifera). The labellum is very convex and broad, three-lobed, of a rich velvety-brown colour, with a tail. The sepals are pinkish. The spike has only about about half a dozen flowers upon it, with a large leafy bract under each. Hillsides, fields and copses on chalk and limestone, chiefly in the South of England and Ireland. June and July. (Plate 77.)
II. Spider Orchis (O. aranifera). Similar to the last, but the sepals greenish, labellum differently marked, and without a tail. Similar situations to apifera, but much more rare. April and May.
III. Fly Orchis (O. muscifera). Sepals greenish, labellum narrow, flat, brown, with a yellow-edged, squarish blue patch. Strikingly like a fly. May to July.
The name of the genus is from the Greek, ophrus, an eyebrow, said to refer to the markings on the labellum.
Several other British species in different genera from those named bear similarly strange likenesses, such as the extremely rare Lizard Orchis (Orchis kircina), but some of the foreign forms are more remarkable still.
