A RARE IRISH ORCHID.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume VII, Issue 342, 7 November 1879, Page 9

A RARE IRISH ORCHID.

Visitors to the south-west of Ireland on their way from Killarney to Cork by Glengariff pass along the upper or inland portion of Bantry Bay. Generally content with the beauties of the scenery surrounding them, they seldom explore the remote recesses of this magnificent arm of the Atlantic. Some 24 miles from Glengariff, on the northern side of the bay, lies the picturesque village of Castletown, protected from the south-westerly gales by a long chain of hills some 900 ft. high, detached from the main land, called Bear Island. In the channel known as Bear Haven our fleet often rides securely at anchor. Here in a few sunny, sheltered spots, by the border of the sea, in little seaside meadows, there are now to be found in full flower specimens of a deliciously fragrant orchid — the sweet-scented Lady's Tresses. Each plant bears a stout spike of flowers of a cream-white colour arranged m three series or rows, each flower being at least three times as large as those of the autumnal Lady's Tresses so commonly to be met with in the dry pastures of the south of England and Ireland at this season. By botanists it is called Spirant hes Rovia/tizoviana. Sir Joseph Hooker once referred it to S. cernua, a species common in the United States, and till quite recently confounded with it by the American botanists. The chief charm or attraction in this little orchid is, however, its very peculiar geographical distribution, Except over a few acres near Castletown looking towards the south-west, it is not to be met elsewhere in the Old World. Unlike some of the rarer west of Ireland plants, it does not occur on the wet>t coasts of Spain or Portugal ; and yet cioss over the Atlantic and it is to be met with in New Yoik and thence on to the very borders of the Pacific. No doubt as to its being a true native of Ireland seems ever to have crossed the mind of any botanist ; indeed, it is one of the most unlikely of plants to have been accidentally or otherwise transplanted, so that probably the solution of the question as to its origin on the shores of Bantry Bay must ever remain a mystery. The very remoteness of its habitat secures for it this advantage — that, while it will ever be a rare plant in our collections, it is not likely that it will ever be extirpated. — Times.