THE FORMS OF ORCHIS MACULATA 125 



in pure bog, in sphagnum, — in these cases separately, the other type 

 being nowhere in the neighbourhood. Such examples do not much 

 favour the soil theory, and support the view that we have here distinct 

 species. At Aberystwyth, fine typical plants of O. Fuchsii grow in 

 the margin of a wood, but many stray into an adjoining pasture, 

 where hundreds of plants of O. ericetorum are found. Here they 

 become short, some very short, but otherwise retain all their charac- 

 teristic features. On the other hand O. ericetorum, when it strays 

 into the wood, retains its own characters. One specimen which we 

 transplanted from the field to the wood came up next year with its 

 leaves flatter than they had been and longer and narrower, but with- 

 out flowering. Next year it came up with exactly similar leaves, and 

 flowered ; the flowers were precisely what they had been in the open 

 field. 



There are many forms intermediate between O. Fuchsii and O. 

 ericetorum. Some of these are probably hybrids, named by Druce 

 O. transiens (Bot. Exch. Club Rep., 1915, 213). He notes two 

 types, one of which has the leaf-scheme of O. Fuchsii with the flowers 

 of O. ericetorum, the other with the characters reversed. Where 

 both forms grow together we have noted a few such intermediates. 

 In the Held just referred to,* at Aberystwyth, after the ordinary 

 O. ericetorum was over but O. Fuchsii in the wood was in full 

 flower, we found two tine plants in the Held with the leaf-type of 

 O. Fuchsii and the flowers of O. ericetorum. These were almost 

 certainly hybrids. 



Apart from possible crosses, a certain number of plants will be 

 found in any large gathering of 0. ericetorum in which the centre- 

 lobe is fairly large. Often this is receding, so that, though large, it 

 does not equal in length the side-lobes. In most cases also, even 

 if it exceeds the side-lobes, it does not comprise a large proportionate 

 area of the lip, as in the case of true O. Fuchsii ; the almost filiform 

 spur will also indicate the ericetorum type. See t. 556, no. 17. 



In this paper it is impossible to touch upon the many hybrids 

 of the Spotted Orchids with the Marsh Orchids and with other forms; 

 it can only be noted that they are numerous and exceedingly interest- 

 ing. A flower of O. ericetorum x Gymnadenia conopsea is given in 

 PL 559, fig. 24. Note the long spur and the stiff curled sepals. 



We must now touch on the relations of the two main British 

 forms to O. maculata of Linnaeus, as well as to continental forms and 

 their naming. 



Dr. Druce (Bot. Exch. Club. Rep., 1914, 99) argues that 0. 

 maculata L. had up to that time included two distinct species, of 

 which the form with the small centre-lobe, the ericetorum form, 

 ought to be reckoned as the true O. maculata. There is some ground 

 for this contention. Linmeus (Sp. PI. 942) characterises the mid- 

 lobe of the lip as " angustissimo, integerrvmo" which suits the 

 ericetorum type but not the Fuchsii type. Moreover, the specimen 

 in Linnaeus's herbarium, if found in any collection of British plants, 

 would undoubtedly be assigned to the ericetorum type. It has 

 keeled, reflexed leaves, and a very small centre-lobe, not produced, or 

 scarcely so, beyond the side-lobes ; the plant, of which the lowest 



