wanting, and as it has hitherto been found almost impossible to raise 
orchids with certainty by seed, this is rendered very difficult of attainment. 
I am not aware that any description has been given of the peculiar 
structure of the glands, or of the character of the guiding plates, which 
here serve as barriers to prevent the straying of insects to the right or 
left of the orifice of the spur, and from the line which brings them in 
contact with the glands of the pollen masses, and the stigmatic cavity, 
which is to receive the pollen thus removed. The contraction of these 
curious strap-shaped glands causes a more rapid depression of the stalk 
of the pollen-mass than I have ever seen in any other Orchis or Ophrys. 
A somewhat similar oblong gland is found in Nigritella globosa, Rchb. 
The habitats which I find recorded between Marseilles and Genoa 
are the following :—Esterel, Chateauneuf, Biot, Castelaras, Grasse (Rchb.), 
Berre, Contes and Nice in the Department Alpes Maritimes, and San Remo, 
Vado (Parlatore), Varazze, Sestri di Ponente, and the neighbourhood of 
Genoa,* where it is said to abound. 
The general distribution of the species is thus given by Nyman :f[— 
France (Lyons and Grasse); Portugal; Spain, Granada; Italy (Naples, 
Sicily); Carniola; Dalmatia, Hungary, Transylvania, Greece, Turkey. 
To these stations may be added Toulouse (Grenier and Godron), the 
extreme point reached in a _ north-westerly direction, and Algeria 
(Parlatore) on its southern limit. 
M. Boissiert states his opinion that the plant of the Mediterranean 
region is the Orchis rubra of Jacquin, which he considers distinct from 
Orchis papilionacea, L., on account of its smaller and cuneiform labellum, 
which grows in Portugal, Southern Spain, and Algeria. I have not been 
able to appreciate the distinction, though favoured by M. Boissier with a 
specimen of O. papilionacea from Constantine, and I find that M. Parlatore 
treats O. rubra, Jacq., as a mere variety of papilionacea. 
EXPLANATION OF PLate XCVI.—Fig. 1, lip of the rhomboid type. Fig. 
2, lip, from the flower of a distinct plant, of the suborbicular type. Fig. 3, 
column, lower part of the lip, spur, and ovary. Fig. 4, pollen-mass with 
its gland adhering to the point of a pencil, which was made to play the 
part of an insect. Fig. 5, lower part uf the caudicle (stalk of the pollen- 
mass) and the gland. Figs. 1 and 2 are of the natural size, and 3, 4, 5, 
magnified. 
* De Notaris, ‘ Repert. Fl. Ligust.’ in Acad. Sc. Torino (1846 et 1848), p. 421. 
t+ ‘Sylloge,” Fl. Eur. p. 356. t ‘Voy. Bot. dans l’Espagne,’ ii. 750. 
