OPHRYDEjE—SERAPIADIN^—NEOTINEA 153 



or tongue-shaped, notched at the apex (sometimes with a tooth in the notch) and twice as 

 broad as the side-lobes. Spur very short (± z mm.), conical, obtuse, flattened laterally. 

 Column very short, notched at apex, anther-cells parallel, contiguous, ovoid, splitting 

 in front in the usual manner. Pollinia extremely small, pale green, consisting of 

 few globular relatively large packets of pollen, loosely tied together; caudicle very 

 short, shorter than poUinia, viscid discs globular, enclosed in the pouch of the 

 rostellum. Capsule moderately thick, tapering at both ends, 3 -ridged. Seeds with 

 transparent netted testa. 



Habitat. Lowland rocky pastures on limestone. Castle Taylor, Kinvarra, Bally- 

 vaughan. Loch Corrib, etc., in Galway, Clare, and Mayo. Absent from Britain. 

 Flowers May to June. Reaches its extreme northern limit in Ireland. First found 

 by Miss F. M. More at Castle Taylor, Galway, in 1864. 



Distribution abroad. Portugal, Spain, Balearic Islands, Sardinia, Corsica, Sicily, 

 the shores of the Mediterranean from France to Italy and Greece, Cyprus, Asia 

 Minor, Algiers, Morocco, Madeira, and the Canary Islands. A Mediterranean and 

 Atlantic plant, flowering from April to June. 



On the Riviera, both French and Italian, the plant is frequent, and occurs not only 

 on limestone, but also on schist and mica-schist, some of the tallest plants being found 

 on the latter. Reichenbach records it from Serra da Cintra, Portugal, as growing in 

 steep granitic places and in arid sand near Coina (Welwitsch). The admirable stereo- 

 graph (PI. F, fig. 4) by Herr F. Pfeiifer-Wellheim, of Vienna, is a great achievement, 

 for no one without actual dissection of the flower can realise the difficulty of rendering 

 the inside of the flower visible without causing the pollen-packets to fall on the stigma. 

 It shows clearly the spur-entrance, the anther with the two pollinia, each joined to a 

 separate viscid gland (concealed in the pouch of the rostellum), and the two lateral 

 stigmas reaching half-way up the anther. The complete absence of the plate con- 

 cealing the base of the anther, pollinia and rostellum figured by Reichenbach ' will 

 be noted. 



Reichenbach f.,^ following Lindley, placed the plant under Aceras, never having 

 seen the rostellum or caudicle. Later he published a coloured plate' in wliich he 

 showed a heart-shaped plate occupying the middle of the flower and two poUinia 

 attached to a long branched caudicle, but did not know whether the latter was 

 constant. 



I have dissected a number of flowers — a difficult task owing to their very small 

 size and the tenacity with which the sepals and petals adhere — and found that : 



(i) Each of the two pollinia is attached to a separate viscid disc, both discs enclosed 

 in a tiny pouch, as in Orchis. 



■ Seemans, ].B. p. i, Table XXV (1865), reproduced in E.B. ed. 3, ix, PL mcccclxv. 

 = Icones, XIII, 2, Tab. 148 (185 1). 



