58 THE .JOURNAL OK BOTANY 



It may fairly be concluded from these considerations, coupled with 

 the fact that S. lingua was frequent where the hybrid was found, 

 that that species was one of the parents. 



To ascertain the other parent is not so easy. The abundance of 

 Anacamptis pyramidalis in the immediate neighbourhood suggests 

 that species, but it is rather shy of hybridization. The walls of the 

 column in pyramidalis are prolonged in two erect guiding-plates on 

 the base of the lip, analogous to the so-called callosities of Serapias, 

 and the pollinia, as in Serapias, are affixed to a common gland. 

 Anacamptis is therefore more closely allied to Serapias than is the 

 genus Orchis, and, since hybrids are well known to occur between 

 Serapias and Orchis, there is no inherent improbability in the idea 

 of a cross between Serapias and Anacamptis. 



Well-authenticated hybrids have been recorded between S. lingua 

 and Orchis papilionacea, and also between S. lingua and O. laxi flora. 

 As the late Mr. Bicknell {Flowering Plants of the Riviera, sub 

 t. lxiv.) says that O. papilionacea has not been found at Bordighera, 

 that species may be ruled out as a possible parent, especially since 

 the published figures of S. lingua X 0. papilionacea (Barla, Icon. 

 Orch. pi. 22, figs. 4-8 and Camus, Mon. Orch. Eur. pi. 12, f. 337) at 

 once put it out of court. O. laxiflora does not grow nearer to the 

 place where our hybrid was found than the mouth of the Nervia, 

 several kilometres away. Comparison with drawings of S. lingua x 

 O. laxiflora found by my wife and myself in Italy has convinced us 

 that O. laxilora is not one of the parents. We are therefore 

 narrowed down to A. pyramidalis, which was plentiful in the neigh- 

 bourhood, for though a single specimen of Orchis tridentata was 

 found on a lower olive-terrace, there is nothing further to suggest the 

 parentage of that species. 



Of direct evidence of the influence of A. pyramidalis there is but 

 little, but this is not surprising. The most salient features of that 

 species are : — 



(1) The lour/ spur. No known hybrid between Serapias and 

 Orchis shows any traces of a spur. As the influence of Serapias is 

 so strong as to suppress this character entirely, we can expect no 

 evidence in this direction. 



(2) The guiding-plates on the lip. As the analogous callosity of 

 S. lingua consists of one thickened cushion-like single mass, rounded 

 at the apex and furrowed, its replacement in the hybrid by two quite 

 distinct ridges may not unfairly be ascribed to the influence of 

 Anacamptis. 



(3) The saddle-shaped viscid disc. In the hybrid the rostellum 

 is also transversely oval, so that in this respect we have a strong 

 resemblance to Anacamptis. Moreover, in S. lingua xO. laxiflora 

 the rostellum has "deux retinacles distincts " (Camus, Mon. Orch. 

 Europe, p. 67). The fart that both pollinia are affixed to one single 

 gland in *S'. Forbesii links it still more clearly to Anacamptis, and 

 renders it more improbable that the second parent belonged to the 

 genus Orchis. 



The following points afford confirmatory evidence. The flowers 

 are smaller than in S. lingua x O. laxiflora, the sepals and petal- 



