1087 
OPHRYS atrata. 
Dark-lipped Ophrys. 
Nat. ord. ORcHiDEx. Tribus Ophrydeæ Lindl. 
OPHRYS. Supra, vol. 3. fol. 205. 
O. atrata ; labello emarginato integerrimo convexo villoso inappendiculato 
bivittato versús basin bicorni, sepalis herbaceis: interioribus ovatis pubes- 
centibus discoloribus exterioribus obtusis dupld brevioribus, foliis glaucis. 
Caulis pedalis v. ultra, foliosus. Folia glauca, ovali-lanceolata, plana. 
Sepala exteriora ovata, obtusa, subherbacea, inferioribus latioribus et longi- 
oribus ; interiora dupld breviora, acutiuscula, pubescentia, purpureo discolora. 
Labellum atro-purpureum, subrotundum, convexum, integerrimum, emargina- 
tum, appendiculd nullä, in disco glabriusculum, vittis duabus pallide fuscis 
sublucidis notatum, versis basin utrinque cornutum, ad ipsam basin lucidum, 
glaberrimum. Columna pubescens, sepalis interioribus subequalis v. brevior. 
This plant was sent from Rome to the Horticultural 
Society, in 1826, by Signor Mauri, under the name of 
Ophrys araneifera, to which it is undoubtedly closely allied. 
But there are some differences between the plants, in the 
structure of their flowers, which, as the species of Ophrys 
are at present constructed, induce us to consider them as 
two kinds, hitherto confounded with each other. 
The true O. araneifera, which is well represented in 
English Botany, tab. 65, is distinguished from O. arach- 
nites, firstly, by the absence of an appendage, or mucro, 
from the apex of its labellum ; secondly, by the roundish 
outline of the same part, which in O. arachnites is always 
more or less cuneate; and, thirdly, by its smoother and 
more elongated interior sepals. In these points, the plant 
now represented agrees with O. araneifera, but it differs in 
having a very entire shaggy labellum, which in O. araneifera 
is downy, and usually 3-lobed ; in its inner sepals being 
more decidedly pubescent; and in the presence of two large 
