23 



BOTANICAL NOTES FROM THANET. 



The followine plants, new to Thanet, wpre found during the past season : Aegopodium podagraria, 

 Kceleria cristata, Festuca myurus, Brachypodium pinnatum can now be added to Dr. Pittock's list of 

 Thant-t pUnts. 



Tri/olium maritimum, Silene cnnica, and Fumaria pallidijlora have been found a^in in Thanet. 

 but in trefeh districts. 



Vicia hybrida, stated in the last edition of Babinffton's Manual to be extinct in Britain, ia very 

 flourishing at one spot in Thanet, and near it may be seen growing wild Coronilla varia and 

 Latkyrus hirsuta. 



F. HEWETT, Mabqate. 



OPHRYS X HYBRIDA : A NEW BRITISH ORCHID, 



[Reprinted, with permission, from Orchid Revieic, August, 1905.] 



The followiner note, accompanied by a small figure, reproduced from a photograph, appeared in th® 

 Countryfiide for July 1st last (vol. i., p. 125) : — 



" A Kkmarkablb Orchid.— Two members of the Canterbury Nature Students' Club bad an extra- 

 ordinary find at Wye last week. I refer to the centre spike of flowers on the enclosed photo. This 

 flower possesses the peculiarities of both the fly and spider Orchid (as shown on either side of the find), 

 yet it is quite distinct. The finders, although ardent Orchid-hunters, have never met this before, and 

 hO far unable to find any mention of the species in any standard Flora. The ba.<5e of the flower, as you 

 win observe, is broad, like the ' spider,* yet shaped like the ' fly ' ; it has no antennse. althoui^h the 

 -colourincfs are as the ' fly.' Perhaps you can classify it. I may mention that both flowers on the spike 

 were alike; the peculiarities were not confined to one flower. — F. C. Snell. Canterbury." 



The fitjure, though much reduced, showed cle»trly the characters mentioned, and I immediately 

 suspected that a natural hybrid between the two sppcies — already known on the Continent — had been 

 discovered, and therefore wrote asking for permission to examine the specimen, if it had been kept. 

 Mr. Sneil immediately communicated with the discoverers, which brought me a prompt reply from 

 Mr. G. W. Harris, which may be summarised here : — 



" The fiuders were my partner, Herbert Walker, and myself, the time being about the end of May. 

 We dried the specimen, and I am writihg to Mr. Walker, who has it in London, asking' him to forward 

 it for your inspection. I have pleasure in enclosing photos, which I think you will find interesting. 

 One is about natural size, the other niagnifled. I thmk they show the flowers better than the one 

 sent to the Countryside. There are plenty of the Ophrys muscifera near : in fact, we gathered it for 

 this until we examined it closely. There were no aranifera very close, as it was in a shaded &^p5e, but 

 the nra-ifera grows wild plentifully within fifty to one hundred yards, on the slopes of the Wye 

 Downs." 



itic two photographs sent have been combined in our illustiation, the upper portion showing the 

 plants about natural size, the lower somewhat magnified, and it is hardly necessary to add that the 

 left-hand fij^ures show the "Fly Orchid " and the right-hand the "Spider," while the hybrid occupies 

 the centre. The latter is so obviously intermediate in shape and details as to leave no vestige of 

 dnuKfr as to its origin. It agiees with the Uphrys i hybrida, Pokorny, whose history may now be 

 given. 



'1 iiB earliest record of a hybrid between Ophrys muscifera and O. aranifera that I know of occurs in 

 1851, when the younger Reichenbach described and figured Ophrys x hybrida, Pokorny (Rc/ib. FL 

 Germ. xiii.. xiv.. p. 79, t. 465. fig. i), as a p'ant found growing with the two sp'^cies named at 

 Bissamberg, near Vienna, on May Sth, 1S46. by Pokorny ; and from the name given it is clear that its 

 hybrid origin was suppected. In the same work is described and figured Ophrys x apicula, J. C. 

 Schmidt (l.c , p. 79, t. 454, fig. i). as a plant gathered at Holderbauk, in the Canton of Aargau, in 

 Switzerland, as early as June, 1832, by Dr. J. K. Schmidt, growing with the same two species. A 

 painting by the collector was sent to Reichenbach, in June, 1847. Although the origin of the plant 

 seems to have been suspected I do not find any earlier record. 0. x Reichenbach iana, M. Schulze, 

 described in 1889 from another Austrian locality (Mitth. Bot. Verh. Jena, vii., p L'9), also appears to 

 bo a form of the same hybrid. The plants under di.=cussion have recently been figured in colour by 

 M. Schulze {Orch. Deutch. Deutch-Oesterr. und Schweiz,t. 28 C), where the author describes O. X 

 apicula as quite intermediate between the two parents. O. x hybrida as most inclining towards 0. 

 muscifera, and O. x Reichenbachiana as bearing a similar relation to O. aranifera, this having an 

 entire lip, though the fiovver is intermediate in other respects. Two other Swiss localities are also 

 recorded, namely, Irchel, and Kiittingen, near Aarau. It might occur presumably wherevei the two 

 species grow in proximity to each other, and its discovery in Kent is very interesting. A careful 

 search might lead to its detection in other British localities. It should be added that the dried 

 spFcimen of 0. x hybrida (see illus'.ratton), with copies of the two photographs, have been presented 

 to Kew. 



