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NATIVE BRITISH ORCHIDACEiE 



Sub-tribe I GYMNADENIINM 

 KEY TO GENERA 



A. No spur. 



1. Plant small, spike slender, pricldy-looking. Flowers very small, green; sepals, 



petals and 3-fid lip connivent. Herminium 



B. Spur short, bladder-like. 



2. Flowers green (often edged red), or red-brown. Lip hanging, strap-shaped, 



5-toothed at tip. Cceloglossum 



C. Spur long, slender. 



3. Leaves two, broad, spike loose; flowers rather large, white or greenish white, 



lip strap-shaped, undivided; viscid glands round or oval, yellow, facing each 

 other, attached sideways to caudicles by their backs. Platanthera 



4. Leaves several, narrow, spike long, cylindrical, flowers many, small with short 



3-fid lip, viscidia linear, pollinia erect on their forward ends. Gymnadenia 



Genus XII HERMINIUM R. Br. 



Column very short. Stigma bi-lobed, viscidia large, somewhat triangular, with 

 broad upturned edges. Anther-cells divergent downwards. Pollinia relatively 

 large, elliptical, with very short elastic caudicle. 



Small plants with only one fully developed tuber at time of flowering, and 1-4 

 immature tubers on rather long stalks. Leaves two, sometimes 3-4. Spike erect, 

 slender, usually dense. Flowers small, drooping, green, sub-campanulate, scented. 

 Ovary twisted, tapering and bent downwards at apex. Lip 3-lobed. 



Herminium R. Br. in Ait. Hort. Kew. ed. 2, v, 191 (1813). Ophrys (species) L., 

 Sp. pi. p. 1342 (1753). Epipactis Schmidt. 



Though included in the Gymnadeniinje through the viscid glands not being 

 enclosed in a pouch, Herminium is not nearly related to any other genus of the sub- 

 tribe. The size, shape and texture of the viscid glands, and their method of attachment 

 to the legs of insects are very remarkable, and find no counterpart in any other 

 European genus. 



