Pirate XCVI. 
ORCHIS papitionacea, L. 
Natural Order OrcHIDACE. 
Gen. Cuar.—See description of Plate XVII. Part I. 
Spec. Cuar.—Spike 2-6 flowered, lax. Sepals connivent below, spreading, 
above. Petals shorter, connivent, and forming a hood over the anther. Lip 
rhomboid, fanshaped, or suborbicular, often contracted and faintly lobed 
at the sides, crenately toothed, beautifully veined, having two prominent 
guiding plates (fig. 3) at the point of union with the walls of the stigmatic 
cavity ; spur nearly straight, parallel to and nearly equalling or shorter by 
one-third than the ovary. Anther beaked, ascending ; glands of pollen- 
masses distinct, linear oblong, each having a hood-shaped thickening at 
its anterior end (that nearest to an insect advancing towards the spur), 
about three times as long as broad. Jeaves linear lanceolate, more or 
less channelled. Twubers 2. 
Orchis papilionacea, Linn. Sp. Plant. p. 1331; Gren. et Godr. Fl. de 
Fr. iii. 284; Parl. Fl. Ital. iii. 458; Woods, Tour. Fl. p. 350; Ardoino, 
F), Alp. Mar. p. 351. 
Hazirat.—Below Castelaras near Cannes, where I gathered the 
specimen represented as the central one of the group on the 9th of May, 
1866, and where Mr. Orr collected the two remaining specimens on 
May 12th, 1870, when the very dry season had dwarfed the growth of 
many plants. 
Remarks.—It is difficult to look at a living plant of this truly beautiful 
Orchis and not be struck by the points of resemblance which it appears 
to present in common with the genus Serapias, and yet this resemblance 
is, for the most part, only superficial. However, there seems no doubt 
but that this species has asserted its affinity by crossing with certain 
species of Serapias, and that the so-called Serapias triloba, Viv., is the 
result of this union. But we must remember that hybrid plants which 
are believed to have had Orchis laxiflora, Lamck., Serapias cordigera, L., in 
one instance, and S. longipetala, Poll., in another, for parents, have also 
been recorded.* M. Barla,t describes and figures a hybrid orchid, the 
parents of which are believed to be Orchis papilionacea, L., on the one side, 
and QO. Morio, L., on the other, specimens of which were found in the 
Contes and Bendejeun valleys, in company with the supposed parents. 
Unfortunately, experimental evidence of the parentage of these plants is 
* Gren. et Godr. Fl. de Fr. iii. 277. 
+ ‘Iconographie des Orchidées de Nice,’ p. 44, tab. 29, 
