134 NATIVE BRITISH ORCHIDACE^ 



leaves, with 1-3 oblong brown ribbed leafless sheaths at base. Leaves basal, two 

 (very rarely three), broadly oblong to oval-oblong, 6-18 cm. long by 3-7 cm. broad, 

 narrowing towards the base, obtuse, pale usually yellowish green, glabrous, glossy 

 beneath and sometimes above, strongly keeled, with ± 7 transparent paraUel vems 

 on each side of the tliick mid-rib, with numerous translucent dashes between; upper 

 leaves 2-6, sessile, linear-lanceolate, bract-Uke, narrow. Spike cylindrical, lax. Flowers 

 larger than those of P. bifolia, 10-25, greenish at first, then greenish white, rarely 

 pure white, with green-tipped lip, sweet-scented, but only at night as a rule. Bracts 

 5-10 mm., green, lanceolate, equalling or half as long again as the ovary, i-nerved, 

 with numerous longitudinal dashes. Ovary not stalked, slender, cylindrical, curved, 

 ± 15 mm. long, twisted, with six obtuse ridges. Lateral sepals 10-13 mm. 

 long, 5-6 mm. broad, ovate-lanceolate or lanceolate, obtuse, obscurely 3-nerved; 

 uppe'r sepal shorter and shghtly broader, triangular with rounded angles, about 

 8x8 mm., obscurely 3-nerved, slightly inclined forward. Petals (7-9 x 2 mm.) 

 linear-lanceolate, curved, somewhat sickle-shaped, rounded out in front at base, their 

 tips nearly touching, with three hardly visible nerves, forming with the upper sepal 

 a shaUow Gothic arch over the column. Lip (12-15 x 3-4 mm.) hardly longer 

 than the sepals as a rule, linear, strap-shaped, slightly narrowing towards the rounded 

 tip, firm in texture, faintly 5 -nerved, white, with green tip, sometimes mosdy greenish 

 (in' long-opened flowers sometimes nearly pure white), directed downwards. Spur 

 very long (2I-3 cm. or more), about twice as long as ovary, compressed from 

 above at the base, so that the entrance is transversely oval, often flattened and some- 

 what club-shaped at the obtuse tip, yeUowish white more or less suffused with green, 

 horizontal or directed downwards, but both positions, and sometimes an ascendmg 

 spur also, may be found on the same spike. Column, basal wall curving round in a 

 white-tipped wing overlapping the stigma on each side. Stigma resemblmg a scallop- 

 shell, concave, green-edged above, situated on the trumpet-shaped throat of the flower 

 above the spur-entrance. Anther flattened out, truncate above, the green wavy 

 "connective" furrowed down the back separating the two cells, which slope back- 

 wards and diverge downwards, the foot of each cell resting on the outer edge of the 

 stigma. Viscidia two, facing each other, one on each side of the stigma, 3-4 mm. 

 apart, thin, flat and circular, with a tiny drum or pedicel on the non-viscous side, to 

 which the end of the caudicle is attached by its side, its tip projecting like a little tail. 

 Pollinia pale yellow, split in two, shorter than the transparent bright yellow 

 caudicles, the whole 4 mm. long. Outside the base of each anther-ceU is a rather large 

 hyaUne staminode. The tip of the spur is filled with nectar for 4 mm. or more— on 

 squeezing the liquid can be seen to rise in the tube. There is only one waU to the 

 spur— no inner layer as in Orchis. In section it is not circular, but bluntly V-shaped 

 below and semi-circular above, with a row of erect short hairs witliin, which possibly 



