ple Loosestrife.

The meadow Orchis, though so common, is thus without any common English
name; for though I have often asked country people for its name, I have
never obtained one; and so it is another of those curious instances
which are so hard to explain, where an old and common English word has
been replaced by a Greek or Latin word, which must be entirely without
meaning to nine-tenths of those who use it.[150:1] There are similar
instances in Crocus, Cyclamen, Hyacinth, Narcissus, Anemone, Beet,
Lichen, Polyanthus, Polypody, Asparagus, and others.

The Orchid family is certainly the most curious in the vegetable
kingdom, as it is almost the most extensive, except the Grasses. Growing
all over the world, in any climate, and in all kinds of situations, it
numbers 3000 species, of which we have thirty-seven native species in
England; and with their curious irregular flowers, often of very
beautiful colours, and of wonderful quaintness and variety of shape,
they are everywhere so distinct that the merest tyro in botany can
separate them from any other flower, and the deepest student can find
endless puzzles in them, and increasing interest.

Though the most beautiful are exotics, and are the chief ornaments of
our stoves and hothouses, yet our native species are full of interest
and beauty. Of their botanical interest we have a most convincing proof
in Darwin's "Fertilization of Orchids," a book that is almost entirely
confined to the British Orchids, and which, in its wonderfully clear
statements, and its laborious collection of many little facts all
leading up to his scientific conclusions, is certainly not the least to
be admired among his other learned and careful books. And as to their
horticultural interest, it is most surprising that so few gardeners make
the use of them that they might. They were not so despised in
Shakespeare's time, for Gerard grew a large number in his garden. It is
true that some of them are very impatient of garden cultivation,
especially those of the Ophrys section (such as the Bee, Fly, and Spider
Orchises), and the rare O. hircina, which will seldom remain in the
garden above two or three years, except under very careful and peculiar
cultivation. But, on the other hand, there are many that rejoice in
being transferred to a garden, especially O. maculata, O. mascula, O.
pyramidalis, and the Butterfly Orchis of both kinds (Habenaria bifolia
and chlorantha). These, if left undisturbed,