OPHRyDEyE— i"ER^P/^D7N^— HIMANTOGLOSSUM 157 



other British orchid, and by the long slender spur. The only one of our orchids it 

 could be mistaken for is Gymnadenia compsea, but the latter has no guide-plates. The 

 upper surface of the lip is minutely velvety with erect extremely short hairs or 

 papillas, which perhaps help to give the lip its extraordinary brilliancy of colour. 



Darwin received six spikes from Folkestone without any spur. None of the 

 polhnia had been removed. He also found that, in about a dozen other flowers either 

 having short spurs or the guiding plates absent or over-developed and foliaceous, 

 the poUinia had only been removed from one flower and the ovary of another was 

 swelling. The perfect flowers on the same spikes had all been fertilised and the 

 pollinia removed. I Plants were pushing up in the rock-garden at Scampston Hall, 

 Malton, Yorks., on November and, 193 1. They increase rapidly under cultivation. 



Habitat. Chalk downs, sunny slopes, especially on limestone, banks, pastures, 

 and rarely on sand-hills. Flowers June to July. 



Distribution. Generally distributed but local in England and Wales, frequent 

 tliroughout Ireland, Scotland only in the south, few records. Wigton, Berwick, 

 Colonsay (Watson, Top. Bot. No. 1050). Europe from Southern Scandinavia and 

 Central Russia to Spain, Italy, the Mediterranean islands, the Balkans, Caucasus, Asia 

 Minor, Syria, Palestine, Persia, N. Africa. 



Anacamptis pyramidalis Rich., Mem. Mus. Paris, iv, 41 (1818). Orchis 



PYRAMIDALIS L., Sp.pl. cd. I, p. 940 (1753). ACERAS PYRAMIDALIS Rchb., 



Icones, p. 6 (185 1). 

 Fertilisation. See "Pollination and Fertilisation", p. 24. 



Genus XVIII HIMANTOGLOSSUM Sprengel 



Rostellum pouch-like, containing only one viscidium, to which both pollinia are 

 attached. Labellum curled up like a watch-spring in bud, mid-lobe very long and 

 narrow; spur short, conical, sack-like. 



Herbs with undivided tubers, stout stem, oblong leaves, cylindrical spike-like 

 raceme, and greenish flowers with connivent sepals and petals. 



It is difficult to decide the genetic position of Himantoglossum. In S. Europe the 

 monotypic genus Barlia has both polUnia attached to a common viscidium, and was 

 placed under Himantoglossum by Sclilechter on that account, and the larger Mediter- 

 ranean genus Serapias with about seven species possesses the same character. They 

 appear to be survivals of an independent line of descent parallel with Orchis. Probably 

 their common ancestor had both pollinia attached to a single viscidium, but whilst 

 Himantoglossum, Barlia and Serapias have retained this character, and have failed to 

 diverge into numerous species, the rest of their ancestral group has evolved two 



' Darwin, Fert. Orch. ed. 2, p. 38. 



