The species now known under genus Orchis and Habenaria had various common names in ancient literature. There were five kinds of Orchis which the Greeks commonly called Cynorchis; this became in Latin _Testiculus canis_ and _Testiculus morionis_, and later in England, _Orchis morio_. Satyrion was also an ancient common English name for the species of Cynorchis known to the Greek apothecaries. In the sixteenth century the Purple-Fringed Orchises of England were known as _Satyrion Royall_, _Noble Satyrion_, _Palma Christi_, and _Royall Standergrasse_. In fact, all species of orchids in 1578 were described under the group of plants designated as _Standlewort_, or _Standergrasse_.[34] Shakespeare mentions them in _Hamlet_ as “Long-Purples” and “Dead-Men’s Fingers.” Tennyson also speaks of them as Long-Purples in _A Dirge_. Rev. Mr. Ellacomb, in _Robinson’s Garden_, alludes to these orchises as “Dead-Men’s Thumbs.” The Great Royall Satyrion of England and Germany, known to Dodoens and Lyte in 1578, was found in meadows and moist woods. The flowers were light purple, and gave forth sweet perfume. The roots were described as double, like a pair of hands, and each palm was parted into four or five small roots like fingers; one palm being withered and spongy, the other full and sound. From this peculiarity of form many of the names were undoubtedly derived. There was also another small purple species of Royall Satyrion, with a perfume like musk. The roots were like the larger purple Royall Satyrion. [Illustration: =The Large Purple-Fringed Orchis.= (_Habenaria grandiflora._) Closely allied to _Habenaria psycodes_ of New England, and to the English Long Purples (_Orchis Morio_) of ancient literature. They are mentioned by Shakespeare in _Hamlet_. “_There with fantastic garlands did she come_ _Of crow-flowers, nettles, daisies, and long purples._” _“Hamlet,” Act IV., Sc. 7._ From lithograph in Meehan’s _Native Flowers and Ferns of the United States_, 1: 1878. By permission.] The roots of Royall Satyrion were used as remedies against many diseases. “If an inch or as much as one’s _thombe_ of this roote be pound and ministered in wine, it is good for many diseases,” writes Dr. Nicholas Nicols, according to Dodoens and Lyte in 1578.[35] These orchises have figured in literature from time unknown, and although shy in New England, seeking the haunts of moose and bear, they delight still to grow in hearing of the cathedral bells in old England, where they are the common flowers of meadow and borders of corn-fields.