132 NATIVE BRITISH ORCHIDACE.E 



CCELOGLOSSUM VIRIDE x ORCHIS MACULATA 



Orchicoeloglossum mixtum A. and G. 



PI. 22 B (p. 125) 



This very rare hybrid combines the characters of both parents in varying manner 

 in different plants. The first specimen recorded was foimd near Morpeth in July, 1891, 

 and described by the late R. A. Rolfe under the name Habenari-onhis viridi-mactilata. 

 It resembled 0. niaculata in the general shape of the flower, the spreading sepals and 

 obovate lip. The Caloglossum parent was evidenced by the strong suffusion of green 

 in the pale lilac flower, the tooth-hke mid-lobe, and the short forward-curved some- 

 what club-shaped spur, and especially by the viscid discs not being enclosed in a 

 pouch in the column {c), though they are clearly so in the flower {a) of the original 

 illustration.' A specimen found by me near Winchester, June 26th, 1916, had greenish 

 flowers with faint purple streaks on the hp, the latter with narrow pointed side-lobes 

 curved forward at the tip, and longer narrow tapering mid-lobe, the sepals and petals 

 spreading acute. The leaves were faintly spotted, and the bracts, buds and sepals 

 brownish outside (PL 22, fig. 4). Another specimen from the same locahty, July 1 5 th, 

 191 8, was 12 cm. tall, with faintly spotted leaves, narrow spike, with 17 dull rose 

 flowers with a whitish streak down the lip, ovate-lanceolate spreading sepals with 

 recurved tips, a wedge-shaped hp with rhomboidal side-lobes curved forward at the 

 tip, a slightly longer tongue-shaped mid-lobe, and a rather tliick cyhndrical obtuse 

 spur, two-thirds the length of the ovary, with a triangular entrance. The viscid discs 

 were not enclosed in a pouch, the pollinia were dull olive-green, and the stigma 

 was on the roof of the chamber beneath the anther, with a purple hue on each side 

 (PI. 22 A). 



Another plant found on the Winchester downs by Mr Comber, G. Phihpson Stow 

 and myself in June, 191 6, was 13I cm. tall, with short rather broad spotted leaves, 

 and a short lax 6-flowered spike. Flowers like 0. macukta, but side-lobes of lip, 

 which was green with purphsh edges and spots, curved forwards, and the mid-lobe 

 curved backwards as in C. viride, wliile the thick sack-hke but rather long forward- 

 curved spur was intermediate between those of the parents. The viscid discs were not 

 enclosed in a pouch.^ 



Two specimens were found in a field at Levally in Ireland in July, 191 9. 

 Ten years after the first specimen referred to above a single example found on the 

 frontier of Bohemia was described by Domin3 as Orchis mixta, and was later named 



1 Ann. Bot. PL 18 (1892). 



2 Winchester Coll. N.H. Soe. Rep. Plate facing p. 12 (1915-17). 



3 Sif^b. Boljm. Ges. Wiss. No. xxii, p. 7. 



