orchis

plural orchises · plural orchides · archaic plural orchisses

1. An orchid; now specifically, a plant of the genus Orchis.First known use 16th c.

   [T]heir maid has dreſſed their hats with cowſlips, orchiſſes, cuckoo-flowers, and golden-cups—[…]

   1792, Charlotte Smith, “Letter XIV. To Miss Waverly.”, in Desmond. […], volume II, London: […] G[eorge,] G[eorge,] J[ohn] and J[ames] Robinson, […], →OCLC, page 195

   2 more examples

   In spring, what a place it was for wild flowers!―as Lucy Raymond and her brothers well knew, having often brought home thence great bunches of dielytras and convallarias and orchises; and at any time some bright blossoms were generally to be found gleaming through the shade.

   1871, Agnes Maule Machar, Lucy Raymond Or, The Children's Watchword, page 25

   He had a suit of summer mufti, and a broad-brimmed blue beaver hat looped with leaves broken from the hedgerows in the lanes, and a Leander scarf tucked full of flowers: loosestrife, meadowrue, orchis, ragged-robin.

   1919, Ronald Firbank, Valmouth, Duckworth, hardback edition, page 91

2. anatomyA testis.