OPHRYDE Æ. 261 
Hab. per omnem Europam frigidiorem et Asiam cistropicam in pratis, 
sylvis dumetisque; a. Ins. Fieroe Lyngbye; B. Gossainthan, Shalma, 
Choor, Peer Punjal Royle; y. Norvegia, Pyrenæis, Mont. Himalayens. 
Royle; 6. Nordlandia, Sommerfeldt, Lapponia Carling, Monte Sarko 
Hungarie; e. prope Fallesiam et per omnem Germaniam, (v: v. sp. et hab. 
8. sp.) 
It is after a most careful examination of specimens that I have deter- 
mined upon combining the above supposed species. Although they do 
appear in extreme cases to be distinct, [ nevertheless am quite at a loss 
for any precise character by which they can be defined with anything like 
certainty. O.cruenta of Flora Danica has smaller flowers than what I have 
considered the true O. latifolia, and its spur is perhaps a trifle longer ; but the 
latter circumstance can, I think, be esteemed but of slight importance in 
à case where the habit of both is so very similar. Of the O. cruenta of 
Reichenbach I have seen authentic specimens from Mount Sarko in 
Hungary, in the Herbarium of Dr. Von Martins; they agree precisely with 
specimens gathered in Nordland by Sommerfelt, and preserved in Dr. 
Lehmann's collection, and seem to me a more Alpine or Northern state of 
O. latifolia; indeed, with the exception of the rather shorter bracts, and 
more conical spur, I can make out nothing like a specific character for it ; 
and I find all that relates to the spur aud lip so much subject to variations, 
between which no limits can be seen, that I am compelled, in this 
species, to pass them by. O. Hatagirea is, I conceive, the Indian form 
of the species; it has entirely the habit of the European O, latifolia, and, 
like it, seems to produce a smaller flowered form, which may be compared 
to O. cruenta ; its lip is sometimes round, and scarcely lobed, sometimes 
slightly three-lobed: in Mr. Royle's Herbarium is a suite of specimens 
completely connecting both those states. 
In Smith's Herbarium is a specimen gathered near Tangier by Durand, 
Which is very like this species in a gigantic state; but which has the 
lip three-lobed, as in O. maculata, and is possibly O. foliosa. 
It is probable that this plant varies in other ways. I have a Russian 
specimen, which has a rhomboidal crisped lip, with the habit of O. sam- 
bucina, and which is either this or a new species; and I have a thing from 
Irkutsk which, without being exactly O. latifolia, is not O. maculata. 
4. Orcuis majalis. Rchb. Pl. Crit. VI. 770. 
O. foliis patentibus oblongis acutis laxe vaginantibus, spicà crassà oblonga, 
sepalis obtusis, labello orbieulato lacero-crenato plano maculà cordi- 
formi notato calcare cylindraceo conico breviore, bracteis herbaceis ovato- 
lanceolatis flore longioribus, tuberculis palmatifidis. 
O. majalis. Rchb. Fl. Excurs. 126. Mayrhof. Dissert. p. 24. 
Hab. in Germania; prope Dornbach Jacquin (hab. s. sp. comm. cel. 
Jacquin.) 
Differt ab. 0. latifolia: foliis oblongis patentibus plerumque nigro aut rubro 
maculatis subtus glaucescentibus, caule humiliore, spica crassiore, flori- 
bus majoribus saturatius rubris aut purpureis; et precipue tempore flo- 
rendi in eodem loco multo precociore. 
I quote Reichenbach's figure upon his own authority ; but I must con- 
fess it is very unlike the plant I have described, for which I am indebted 
to Baron Jacquin. 
