The Early Purple Orchis.--Root with two undivided tubers. Stem from six to eighteen inches high, including the loose spike of flowers. Leaves broad, and often spotted. Flowers numerous, usually purple, but sometimes pink or even white. Bracts coloured, nearly as long as the ovary. Upper sepals and petals arched over the ovary; lateral sepals acute, and turned upwards and backwards. Lip about the same length as the sepals, divided into three short lobes, the middle one notched, and the lateral ones turned backward. Spur as long as the ovary, obtuse. The plant is generally distributed, growing in moist meadows and in woods, flowering from April to June. Finally, we have to note two early-flowering grasses of pastures. One of these is the Fox-tail Grass (_Alopecurus pratensis_), which grows from one to two feet high, and may be identified with the aid of our illustration. The other is the Slender Fox-tail (_A. agrestis_), a very similar plant, but its spike of flowers is narrower, especially towards the top, and the sheaths of its leaves are not so loose as in the former. IX BOGS, MARSHES AND WET PLACES IN SPRING The cold soils of bogs, marshes, and other wet places do not produce a very great variety of flowers during the spring months; but some there are which appear in great profusion; and others, though less conspicuous, are sufficiently abundant and interesting to be included in our list. Our first is the beautiful Marsh Marigold (_Caltha palustris_) of the Buttercup family (_Ranunculaceæ_), which is exceedingly abundant in marshes and by the sides of muddy ditches in most parts of Britain, flowering from March to June. It is represented on Plate V, and may be distinguished at once from the other members of its family by its glossy leaves, and its large flowers, varying from one to near two inches in diameter. A little later in the season we may meet with the pale blue or lilac flowers of the Marsh Violet (_Viola palustris_--order _Violaceæ_), which generally make their first appearance in April, and continue until June or July. The plant is much like the well-known Sweet Violet in general appearance, but is smaller, with a creeping stock; and the whole is smooth with the exception of a few scattered hairs on the flower-stalks. Its leaves are either round, heart-shaped, or kidney-shaped, with slightly-waved edges, and often of a purplish hue beneath. The flowers are smaller than those of the Sweet Violet, scentless, with pale petals; and the spur of the corolla is very short and blunt. The plant is rather local in the southern counties of England, but is decidedly abundant in the bogs and marshes of North Britain. Few of the spring bog-flowers are more interesting than the pretty little Sundews (_Drosera_), so remarkable on account of their carnivorous nature. A description of the three British species will be found in Chapter XXIV, which contains also an account of their peculiar habits.