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The Bee Orchis Fairy
In the grass o' bank,
by the side o' the way,
Where your feet may stray
On your luckiest day,
There's a sight most rare
That you eyes may see:
A beautiful orchis that looks like a bee!
A velvety bee, with a proud little elf,
Who looks like like the wonderful
orchis himself
In the grass o' the hill
Not often, but still
Just once in a way
On your luckiest day! |
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Bee
(or Fly) Orchis
There is a species of the orchis found in the mountainous parts of Lincolnshire, Kent, &c. Nature has formed a bee, apparently feeding in the breast of the flower, with so mnch exactness, that it is impossible at a very small distance to distinguish the imposition. Hence the plant derives its name, and is called the BEE-FLOWER. Langhorne elegantly notices its appearance.
“See on that flowret’s velvet breast,
How close the busy vagrant lies!
His thin-wrought plume, his downy breast,
The ambrosial gold that swells his thighs.
“Perhaps his fragrant load may bind
His limbs;—we’ll set the captive free—
I sought the LIVING BEE to find,
And found the PICTURE of a BEE.”
The late Mr. Jackson, of Exeter, wrote
on this subject: “This orchis is common near our sea-coasts; but instead of being exactly like a BEE, it is not like it at all. It has a general resemblance to a fly, and by the help of imagination may he supposed to be a fly pitched upon the flower.”
An ingenious botanist, a stranger to me, after reading this article, was so kind as to send me specimens of the fly orchis, ophrys muscifera, and of the bee orchis, ophrys apifera. Their resemblance to these insects when in
full flower is the most perfect conceivable: they are distinct plants. The poetical eye of Langhorne was equally correct and fanciful; and that too of Jackson, who differed so positively. Many controversies have been carried on, from a want of a little more knowledge; like that of the BEE orchis and the FLY orchis; both parties prove to be right.
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