BATH FLOllA, FERTILISATION, ETC. 219 



Habcnaria chlorantha., Ophrys apifera^ Op. muscifera^ Op. aranifera., 

 Neottia spiralis., Lister a ovata., Listera Jiidus-avis, Epipadis lati- 

 folia, E. pahistris, and Cephalanthera gra?idiJiora, referred to in 

 the " Bath Flora " as Epipadis graiidiflora. According to that 

 careful and skilled botanist, the Rev. Leonard Jenyns, the Spider 

 Orchis (Ophrys aranifera) has either become extinct or its inser- 

 tion in the Bath Flora was a mistake. The habitat given is on 

 Dry Hills, above Winsley. It is not to be found there now. I 

 have found Habeuaria hifolia (the Lesser Butterfly Orchis) in a 

 wood between Midford and Limpley Stoke, and the Rev. Canon 

 Ellacombe has found the same species at another station within 

 the Bath district. Bath can, therefore, still boast of the posses- 

 sion of 19 members of this most interesting family of plants. I 

 can vouch for 18. The only species 1 have not found is 

 Hermiiiiicm niouorchis. 



Probably the most interesting feature of the Orchidaceous plants 

 is their method of fertilisation. It is to this subject chiefly that I 

 direct attention. It may be stated generally that there are properly 

 in the Orchids tliree united pistils, or female organs. The upper part 

 of the pistil has its anterior surface soft and viscid, which forms 

 the stigma. The two lower stigmas are often completely con- 

 fluent, so as to appear as one. The stigma in the act of fertilisa- 

 tion is penetrated by long tubes emitted by the pollen grains, 

 which carry the contents of the grains down to the ovules, or 

 young seeds, in the ovarium. Of the three pistils, which ought to 

 be present, the stigma of the upper one has been modified into an 

 extraordinary organ called the Rosfellu/n, which in many Orcliids 

 presents no resemblance to a true stigma. The rostellum either 

 includes or is formed of viscid matter ; and in very many Orchids 

 the pollen-masses are firmly attached to a portion of its exterior 

 membrane, which is removed, together with the pollen-masses, by 

 insects. This removable portion consists in most British Orchids 

 of a small piece of membrane, with a layer or ball of viscid matter 

 underneath, which I shall call the ^^ viscid disc;'' but in many 

 exotic Orchids the portion removed is so large and important that 

 one part must be called, as before, the viscid disc, and the other 

 part the pedicel of the rostellum, to the end of which pedicel the 

 pollen-masses are attached. The grains of pollen are united 



