288 THE JOURTTAL OF ROTANV 



always, unspotted. The spur varies from conical to conico-cylindrical, 

 + 10 mm. long, compressed laterally, pale violet outside, white inside, 

 densely covered within by rather long white papillae. In one or two 

 plants the spur was dorsaUy compressed, and in one it was very short 

 and almost saccate, but in the upper flowers it was longer and nearly 

 normal. 



In the valley of Thorenc, 3G00 ft. above sea-level, in June, 

 O. latlfolia L. was very abundant in the damper meadows, witli 

 no other marsh orchid present, though morio, coriopJiora,a.r\(\ Gi/m/ia- 

 ilenia conopea were ])lentiful, the first-named already out of flower. 

 O. maculata was abundant, but was mostly confined to the pine 

 woods. The hybrid lafifolia X maculata occurred, but was not very 

 frequent. O. Jatifolia was in the main unaffected by hj^bridization, 

 and was very uniform. Mdlle. A. Camus (Riviera Scientifique, 

 1918) recorded the varieties ampla A. & G. and pinguis A. & G. as 

 occurring, but I found the descriptions of Ascherson & Graebner 

 insufficient to enable me to distinguish them satisfactorily from the 

 type. Single plants were observed here and there amongst the type 

 in which tlie spike was so long as to occupy most of the stem above the 

 leaves, but this appeared to be only an individual variation. . I found 

 one specimen of lafifolia with apparently white flowers, but on 

 placing it beside a pure white maculata it was seen to be very faintly 

 tinged with extremely pale mauve. The leaves were light j^ellow- 

 green, but were nevertheless faintly spotted, showing how inherent 

 and persistent is the tendenc}'' to spotted leaves, even . in an almost 

 albino specimen. On June 18th I found an extraordinary plant. 

 The two lowest flowers had ver}^ long slender ovaries ; from the 

 11 bracts next above these arose, instead of an ovary and flower, a 

 bracteated spikelet 6-7 cm. long, bearing 4 or 5 small flowers with 

 very short ovaries; some had no spur, some a very short one, in some 

 it was of normal length in proportion to the size of the flowers ; two 

 flowers had no column. 



The net result of my observations was that I became convinced 

 that the O. lafifolia of these southern regions is identical with the 

 spotted-leaved marsh orchid of Great Bi'itain : I do not think they 

 could be satisfactorily distinguislied even as varieties. It is certainly 

 not the case here that lafifolia is a hybrid between an unspotted 

 marsh orchid and O. maculata, for no marsh orchid with unspotted 

 leaves exists in the neighbourhood, and at Vence maciilafa also was 

 entirely absent. Barla's figures (Icon. Orch. pi. 48) represent 

 O. lafifolia, not X O. Braunii. The latter is a cross between spotted- 

 leaved lafifolia and spotted-leaved maculata^ and not between an 

 unspotted marsh orchid and O. macnlafa. I saw no sj^ccimens 

 resembling Barla's varieties of O. lafifolia on plate 49, with leaves 

 spotted on both sides. 



Mdlle. A. Camus, joint author with her father and M. Bergon of 

 the Mon. des Orch. de TEurope, wrote to me on Oct. 19th, 1919 : — 

 " In the environs of Paris, where this species is rather Avidely dis- 

 tributed, often without admixture, I have always seen 0. lafifolia 

 with spotted leaves, more or less clearly marked, according to the 

 individual, and perhaps according to the amount of light." 



