OPHRYDE. 259 
defined ; the more especially as those characters are easily discoverable on 
the recent plant by the most unskilful ; and it is to be supposed that those 
who attempt to examine dried specimens have a sufficient degree of skill 
for such an operation. 
Although the character taken from the number of glands to which the 
pollen masses adhere, is obscure, and often difficult to determine in dried 
specimens, yet it seems necessary to employ it, in order to exclude the 
Satyrium hircinum of Linneus, which is evidently a near ally in nature of 
Aceras anthropophora. Dr. Brown, indeed, retained the former species in 
Orchis, and he has been followed by myself in the Synopsis of the British 
Flora, and by Dr. Hooker in his British Flora. Nevertheless, considering 
the evident trace of a spur in Aceras anthropophora, the shortness of that 
of Satyrium hircinum, the complete accordance of these two species in other 
respects, and especially the evident unimportance of the spur, when very 
short, in Herminium, I think it most advisable, after a careful examination 
of all the species I know, to adopt Richard’s idea of the genus Himantoglos- 
sum; à name, however, that I cannot, in common with continental writers, 
prefer to the more ancient one of Aceras; which can hardly be said to 
be objectionable because some species have spurs, inasmuch as such species 
form the exception to the general rule. 
It is usual to divide the species by the structure of their roots, a cha- 
racter unemployed in a similar manner in any other genus. Independently 
of the inconvenience of being unable, by such a mode of division, to arrange 
species, or determine specimens, the roots of which are unknown, there is 
the additional disadvantage in employing the roots for a principle of divi- 
sion, that very unnatural groups are formed ; for example, O. sambucina 
1s separated from O. pallens, &c. &c. 
A better distinction exists in the direction of the sepals, of which either 
all converge, forming a sort of helmet, whence they may be called Müitares, 
or the two lateral sepals diverge, as in O. mascula and its allies. By this 
means the genus is divided into two groups, each of which is so natural, 
that it may almost be doubted whether they are not distinct genera. 
$ 1. MascULE. Sepalis lateralibus reflexis v. patentibus. Lindl. in Bot. Reg. t. 1701. 
* Labello indiviso; v. tantum lacero; v. obsoletissimé trilobo. Sp. 1—6. 
* * Labello 3-4-fido. Sp. 7—21. 
$2. MinrTARES. Sepalis conniventibus galeam referentibus. Lindl. 1, c. (HERORCHIS.) 
* Labello indiviso. Sp. 22—24. 
* * Labello trilobo. Sp. 25—31. : Mes 
* ** Labello 4-fido v. 4-partito; mucrone inter crura media semper interjecto. 
Sp. 32—end. 
$1. Mascunz. Sepalis lateralibus reflexis v. patentibus. 
* Labello indiviso ; v. tantum lacero; v. obsoletissim? trilobo. 
I have placed in this section all the species in which the laceration of 
the margin of the lip, of whatever degree, does not regularly take the form 
of three distinct and well defined lobes. And I have referred to the next 
section all those which, like O. pallens and sambucina, have often a nearly 
entire lip, but with a manifest tendency to divide into three lobes. 
l. Oncmis salina. — Tourtchaninoff MSS. 
O. foliis lineari-lanceolatis erectis, spicà laxiflorà, sepalis angustis obtusis 
