OPHRYDEyE—SERAPIADINjE— ORCHIS 169 



narrow acute tooth between. Spur descending, cylindrical, sack-like, obtuse, slightly 

 curved forwards, pale rose or violet, barely half as long as ovary. Column obtuse. 

 Stigma cordate, pouch of rostellum and viscid glands yellowish white. Anther 

 ovoid, violet-purple with contiguous parallel cells, pollinia dark bluish green. Seeds: 

 testa transparent, oblong, rounded at apex, reticulate, cells not striate, cell-walls thick. 



Specimens found by me in Savoie had a delicious honey-like scent. Camus (Lofi. 

 p. 169) says they smell slightly of coumarin, like woodruff {Asperula odorata L.). The 

 tubers yield salep. 



O. militaris, purpurea and simia were regarded as varieties of one species by Linnaeus, 

 a view adopted by Hudson' and some other authors. Smiths thought that 0. militaris 

 &nd purpurea were good species, but was doubtful about 0. simia. No doubt all three 

 sprang from a common ancestor. When dried they all smell of coumarin. So also 

 does Aceras anthropophora in a still more marked degree, and probably arose from the 

 same stock as O. simia, which its lip somewhat resembles. All are now regarded as 

 good species. 



Schulzes figures a flower with three sepals alternating with three lips, making the 

 flower appear regular (peloria). He does not say whether the petals transformed into 

 lips had spurs. Camus4 describes and figures a flower with the two side-sepals turned 

 into incomplete lips, each with a spur. 



A small colony with pure white flowers of great beauty was found by me near the 

 Lac de Thuile, Savoie, in May, 1927. The species is much less variable than 0. purpurea. 



Habitat. Grassy hills, banks, field borders and edges of woods on chalk or lime- 

 stone. Flowers mid-May to mid- June. On the Continent occurs also in turbaries 

 (Camus, Icon. p. 171 (1929)). 



Distribution. Formerly found in the Thames Valley in Oxford and Berks., and 

 also at Harefield, now nearly extinct.5 Long extinct in Kent (Hanbury, F/. Kent). 

 There is some doubt whether the Kent plants were not a form of 0. purpurea. Extends 

 from S. Sweden to Spain, Portugal, Italy as far south as the Abruzzi, the northern 

 part of the Balkan peninsula. Central and Southern Russia, Siberia, Caucasus, Trans- 

 caucasia. 



Druce (F/. Oxjordsh. (1886)) says: " . . .Native. Chalkwoods in Thames District. 

 V.R. Almost extinct". . ."I have found it during the last four years very sparingly. 

 It only appeared in a barren state in 1886". 



Orchis militaris L., Sp. pi. (1753)- O. Rivmi Gouan (1775). O. galeata 

 Lam. (1789). The connivence of the sepals and petals in a helmet probably gave 

 rise to the name militaris. 



I F/. Anglica, ed. 2, p. 384 (1778). 



» Engl. Flora, p. 16 (1828). 3 Orch. Deutsch. 9 (1894). 



t Icon. p. 171, PL 130, fig. 20 (1928, Planches (1921)). 



5 Formerly abundant in Hertfordshire. Pryer's Fl. Herts. (1887). 



