1^2 NATIVE BRITISH ORCHIDACE^ 



rhomboidal or rounded often truncate irregularly toothed or crenate lobes, with a 

 short tooth between. The base of the lip curves up on each side to form a heart- 

 shaped chamber, on the roof of wliich is the stigma, bordered by a purple Hne. Spur 

 descending, cyUndrical, sack-Uke, curved forwards, compressed from back to front, 

 enlarged, truncate, notched or sUghtly bi-lobed at the obtuse tip, less than half as 

 long as the ovary. Column very short, nearly as broad as long, white or rose. 

 Stigma cordate, glistening, pouch of rostellum white, viscid discs oval, hyalme. 

 Anther ovoid, purple-eyed, ceUs parallel, with a stigmatic fold between. Pollinia 

 pale green, caudicles flat, ribbon-like, pale yellow; packets of poUen large, obcomcal, 

 rounded at apex, very pale green. Seeds: ceUs of transparent testa nearly rectilinear, 



not striate. 



Var. pseudo-militaris Druce.^ Flowers smaller, lobes of the Up much narrower 

 than the type. Repeatedly mistaken for 0. militaris when dried, but easily distinguished 

 from it when fresh by the dark helmet, and the colour and shape of the lobes of 



the Up. 



Var. albida Camus. Flowers white. 



Near Wye non-flowering plants had only two leaves, lying flat on the ground, 

 possibly through drought. The prevaiUng colour scheme was dark red-violet or 

 brown-purple helmet and pale-coloured Up, but the following variations were noted. 

 Heknet green flecked with purple; heUnet duU rose outside, green within with pale 

 rose markings, lip wlUte with very pale spots ; helmet greenish white with pink nerves, 

 lip pure white with extremely faint spots ; helmet dark red-purple, Up broadly mottled 

 at the edges with bright purple. Some continental specimens have a broad red-violet 

 border on the under-surface of the lip, so that the pale wliitish spike when turned 

 upside down looks bright violet. Flowers growing in the open are generaUy darker, 

 nevertheless a specimen with rather pale rose heUnet grew in the open, amongst a 

 colony of dark-coloured forms. In Kent the lip is usually wliite or very pale in the 

 shade. The Up is at first horizontal, then obUquely pendent. It varies very much in 

 shape. Camus gives 27 named varieties, but some of these are much alike, and some 

 are dwarf or abnormal forms. There are two marked forms: {a) mid-lobe inversely 

 heart-shaped with broad rounded lobes with a shallow sinus between (var. ohcordata 

 Wirtgen); {b) mid-lobe wedge-shaped with nearly straight sides and oblong almost 

 paraUel-sided entire or more or less deeply toothed lobes, separated by a mere notch 

 or by a deep triangular indentation extending haU'-way to the base of the lip (var. 

 triangularis Wirtgen). The side-lobes vary in length, are usuaUy narrow, enlarged 

 or not towards the apex, acute, obtuse, or obUquely truncate at the tip, curved or 

 straight, entke or with one or two teeth. Very rarely they are absent, as in a specimen 

 found by me above Grasse, which had a wedge-shaped Up with a rather long tooth 



I B.£.C.p. 318 (1927)- 



