lyo NATIVE BRITISH ORCHIDACE^ 



Fertilisation. See "Fertilisation and Pollination". At Challes-les-Eaux, Savoie, 

 France, on May 25th, 1929, Colonel G. H. Evans, F.L.S., took Andrena curvmgula 

 on 0. militaris with a pair of pollinia on its head. Near the same place I saw the large 

 black Carpenter Bee, Xjlocopa violacea, come twice to the flower, but it did not alight. 

 I also took a rather small humble-bee, black with a yellow collar, but it bore no 

 pollinia— perhaps these had been already removed. A small ^omhus with yellow 

 collar and red tail (S. lapidarius) flew round my head in bed in the early morning, 

 and then went to 0. militaris on the window-sill. I took it, but as it bore no poUmia, 

 I placed the box containing it on the window-sill, and took off the lid. It then went 

 to 0. militaris, O. maculata and 0. latifolia— to one flower of each in turn— and 

 then to 0. masa/la, from which it withdrew two pairs of pollinia and then flew away. 



Sprengel stated {Das entdeckte Geheimniss, p. 404) that O. militaris is imperfectly 

 fertilised in Germany, but as he mentions five spikes with 31 set capsules, an average 

 of over sLx a spike, he seems to have expected nearly every flower to bear a capsule, 

 as in Gymnadenia compsea, with which he contrasted it. As it is abundant in Central 

 and Southern Germany, it is evidently well fertilised there. 



ORCHIS MILITARIS x O. SIMIA 



O. Beyrichii Kerner 



PL 34 B (p. 161) 



I have not seen a British specimen of this hybrid, but have found it at Mantes in 

 France and AUaman in Switzerland. It varies much, being sometimes nearer to one 

 parent, sometimes to the other. Some plants have the general appearance of O. simia, 

 but are more robust, with a usually longer and more oblong spike. The mediastm 

 (undivided part of the mid-lobe) is broader than in 0. simia, but narrower than m 

 0. militaris, the lobes often curled upwards and more or less spatulate, and the 

 terminal lobes more widely divergent, as in 0. militaris, but much narrower, though 

 broader than in 0. simia (x O. Chatini Camus). Other plants are near O. militaris m 

 appearance, but have long narrow spatulate terminal lobes, and side-lobes longer 

 than the mediastin ( x 0. Grenieri Camus). 



There is great diversity of form, but always a departure from the type of O. simia 

 in the direction of O. militaris, or vice versa. None of the plants I found agreed exactly 

 with published figures or descriptions. 



According to Sowerby,i in localities where 0. simia and 0. militaris grew together 

 in the Thames Valley, hybrids occurred, but in stations where only one or the other 

 of them grew there were no hybrids. In France I have several times found hybrids 



I E.B. ed. 3, p. 96. 



