THE BRITISH PALMATE OIICIIIDS 259 



O. ERICETORUM is veiy variable, but cannot be confused with any 

 Marsh Orchis unless it be a pale specimen of O. latifolia. Leaves 

 usually narrow and keeled, but may be broad, spotted or blotched, 

 or unspotted, only with rings as a rare exception. Stem solid *. 

 Flowers nearly always with spreading or drooping sepals, slenderer 

 spur than in any other form, and broad lip which is sharply 3-lobed, 

 but with the central lobe very much smaller in area than the lateral 

 lobes and often shorter than they are. The flower may be white, 

 lilac of various shades, pink, or light purple, and there are darker 

 markings on the lip as a rule, which may form almost any conceivable 

 pattern of either dots or lines. 



O. FucHsii has the leaves typicall}^ blotched or unmarked and 

 often flat, the lower leaves usually broad, and the lowest of all with a 

 blunt rapidly-narrowing end, a contrast to the more gradual tapering 

 typical of O. ericetorum. Flowers with fairly slender spur, sepals 

 spreading to fairly erect, lip sharply cut into three suhequal lobes 

 by deep clefts. At its best the Up has the middle lobe about equal 

 in area to the side-lobes. The flower-colour is white or lilac or light 

 purple with darker markings, which, although they frequently make 

 a rather regular little pattern of lines in the middle of the lip, may 

 extend over its whole surface as thej^ so often do in O. ericetorum. 

 A very distinct race of O. FucJisii with pure wdiite flowers and un- 

 spotted leaves occurs in Ireland and Scotland, which Druce has 

 named O. O'Kellyi. 



With the above preface we may proceed to the description of our 

 Plate, which will supplement the former paper on O. purpurella and 

 illustrate any later ones on Marsh Orchids. It is not easy to 

 describe these critical forms in words, and we hope the Plate will 

 clear up our meaning. Leaf-schemes we had preimred, but cannot, 

 unfortunately, print them. 



Expla:n^atiox of Plate. 



The figures on this Plate are not all drawn to quite the same 

 scale, so should not be compared with each other from that point of 

 view. They are done, however, with great care as regards proportions^ 

 form, and markings of each flower. Allowance should be made for 

 some loss of depth and brilliance in some of the colours due to 

 reproduction. 



Figs. 1-4 and 24. 0. incarxata. These show the narrow, more 

 or less reflexed lip, small in proportion to the rest of the flower, and 

 not deeply, though distinctly, trilobed ; and also the characteristic 

 pattern of lines inside a more or less continuous enclosing line in the 

 typical foi-ms, on the lip. Note the erect sepals and the very wide 

 throat where lip and petals join. The colour-range is gi-eater here 

 than in any other species. Fig. 1 is from a Kidwelly specimen, with 



* We may mention here that we find that the solidity or hollowness of the 

 stem is not constant in all species. In 0. incarnata the stem is always decidedly 

 hollow, in 0. ericetorum and 0. Fuchsii it is always solid, but in O. preetermissa 

 and O. latifolia it varies from truly hollow to quite solid through degrees where 

 it is three-quarters or more solid with a tiny central cavity. 



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