OPHRYDE^—SERAPIADINjE— ORCHIS 167 



violet shading into white at the base. Mid-lobe sprinkled with minute tufts of violet 

 rather long papilla, the white surface crystalline with densely studded very short 

 white papillae. Spur pointing downwards about half as long as ovary, narrow at the 

 neck, flattened from back to front, wider at the truncate sometimes notched apex. 

 Column short, white at the back, with two dark purple eye-like spots at apex, forming 

 a chamber over the mouth of the spur, with a rounded violet staminode on each side 

 at the base. Anther oblong, truncate at apex, sometimes with a short beak. Stigma 

 on the back of the chamber above the spur, bordered by a purple line, and appearing 

 cordate owing to the projection of the rostellum downwards. 



The British plant differs from the type by its darker more grey-green leaves, more 

 cylindrical spike, bluer lip-segments, broader mid-lobe with smaller spots, and whiter 

 spur. One or more, however, of these characters may be occasionally found in some 

 continental specimens. I have therefore named it 0. sima var. timer a, retaining 

 Lindley's specific name. I found one specimen at Challes-les-Eaux, Savoie, France, 

 with similar colouring to the British plants, amongst hundreds of the type. Some- 

 times it is pure wliite and very beautiful. Lindley wrote ' that he had no doubt that 

 the British plant was altogether distinct from the 0. tephrosanthos of continental 

 writers (O. simia). He says that O. macra "independent of its more slender habit, 

 narrow few-flowered spikes and bluntish leaves, is quite remarkable for the exceedingly 

 large cells of the tissue of the lip, which project and have a watery appearance, as if 

 the whole surface were covered with crystalline warts ; the lip is moreover destitute 

 of the hispid line which invariably runs through its centre in all the varieties of 

 militaris or tephrosanthos I have examined". 



A. Camus^ writes of 0. simia that the papillae of the upper surface of the lip are 

 extremely developed, those of the violet spots 200-2 5 o/x long, but that at the base 

 of the lip there is a central furrow without papillae. Towards the middle of the lip 

 the central area forms a crest furnished with papillae. The plant smells of woodruff 

 when dried. A curious character is the opening of the flowers from the top down- 

 wards, not from the base upwards, as in all other British species. 



O. militaris x simia, vide 0. militaris. 



Orchis simia Lam., F/. Franc, in, 507 (1778). O. militaris e L. (1763). 

 O. tephrosanthos Vill. (1787). O. brachiata var. cinerea Gilib (1792), 

 etc. O. militaris, E.B. t. 1873. O. macra Lindl., JTy^. ed. 2, p. 260 (1835). 



Habitat. Grassy places on hillsides, among bushes, and on borders of fields on 

 limestone or chalk; rather dry and wooded hills. 



Distribution. Apparently now confined to Oxfordshire, formerly found in Berk- 

 shire. There is a single record for Kent, the Rev. S. L. Jacobs having found it near 



■ Sjn. Brit. Flora, ed. 2, p. 260. 2 Camus, Icon. p. 166 (1929). 



