340 



Notulce Botunkcc, 



to confound it, by the flesh-coloured sepals, these being green 

 in O. aranifera. When dry, it is 1(35 



chiefly distinguished by the cris- 

 tate appendage at the extremity 

 of the lip ; the lip in O. arani- 

 fera being simply emarginate. 

 There is, however, an interme- 

 diate species, which has caused 

 great confusion to foreign bota- 

 nists ; it is the O. arachnites Lk, 

 which Willdenow has impro- 

 perly referred to O. aranifera. 

 Link expressly speaks of the 

 coloured sepals, and says, also, 

 that the lip is emarginate, with 

 an appendage placed in the notch, — " labii laciniae laterales 

 obsoletae, media rotundata emarginata, appendice carnosa in 

 emarginatura fusca." Now this species may be a variety of the 

 true O. arachnites, but certainly not of O. aranifera. In Link's 

 species, however, the appendage is very small and triangular, the 

 apex of the triangle pointing forwards ; while, in O. arachnites, 

 the appendage is cuneate and large, curled upwards, attached by 

 its apex, and the extremity is lobed or cristate. This last I have 

 received from the neighbourhood of Paris and from Geneva; 

 and have myself gathered it, though very sparingly, at the Pic 

 St. Loup, near Montpelier, in company with Mr. Bentham ; 

 though, I presume by accident, the locality is omitted in his 

 Catalogue des Plantes des Pyrenees et du Bas Languedoc, In that 

 excellent work I find O. aranifera Sm, stated to be common ; 

 I, however, never observed it in Languedoc, and am inclined 

 to think that O. arachnites Link is the plant intended. That, 

 indeed, is extremely common throughout the south of France, 

 and particularly abundant at the Pont du Gard. Of this 

 several varieties occur: in some the appendage at the ex- 

 tremity of the lip is so small as to be scarcely perceptible. In 

 one specimen I have, from M. Requien, of Avignon, found at 

 Fos, in Provence, the surface of the lip, as far as I can judge 

 by a dried specimen, is of a uniform reddish colour, and not 

 marked with yellow lines, and is covered all over with short 

 hairs. 



I presume Dr. Smith's O. fucifera {English Flora, iv. p. 32.) 

 has green sepals, and is not even a variety of O. aranifera ; 

 but I have not seen specimens ; and, indeed, of O. aranifera 

 itself I judge entirely by descriptions and figures, particularly 

 that in English Botanij, having neither gathered it myself, nor 

 yet received the true plant from correspondents. 



Edinhirgh, May 24. 1828. G. A. W. A. 



