j^g NATIVE BRITISH ORCHIDACE^ 



with minute papilk. Column short, purpUsh. Stigma on the roof of the throat of 

 the flower, bordered with a purple line, depressed and greenish in the middle. Pouch 

 of rostellum whitish, tinged with purple. Anther purple, pollinia greemsh (m white 

 flowers yellow), caudicles yellow, viscidia disc-like. Testa of seed hyahne, long, 

 rather narrow; embryo oval, not much longer than broad (Dymes). Cells of testa 

 with wavy walls, very striate (Camus). The bulbs yield salep. 



Var. Bartlettii Heslop Harrison. Flowers only half the linear dimensions of 



the type.i ^ t c a 



On May 22nd, 1918, near Broadstone, in a damp meadow amongst rushes, 1 tound 

 plants of remarkable size and beauty. The stem was hollow beneath the spike, the 

 lip bright violet, nearly flat and very broad (17-21 mm.), the side-lobes deeply 

 toothed, the mid-lobe sHghtly longer and truncate (PI. 39 A). At first they were 

 thought to be 0. /aiifo/ia x mom, the former being also present, but no other definite 

 signs of 0. /atifo/ia could be found than the hoUow stem, and the stem of 0. mono 

 itself is often hollow. A specimen found by me in Dorset^ had 3-lipped flowers, 

 each petal having developed into a lip, but without a spur (PL 39 B). Flowers with 

 three lips, each with a spur, and others in which the lip is reduced to its origmal form 

 of a spurless petal have also occurred, making the normally irregular flower appear 



regular (peloria). 



The plant may be tall (30 cm.) or dwarf (10 cm.), and may have unusuaUy large 

 flowers as above, or only half the usual size. The shape and colour of the lip are 

 very variable. The mid-lobe may be slightly longer or shorter than the side-lobes, 

 but it is usually truncate. The central area is white or pale-coloured with purple 

 spots The sepals are nearly always connivent in a helmet, and the side-sepals have 

 conspicuous green nerves. The spur is cut off square at the tip, or sometimes more 



or less notched. 



Habitat. Abundant in rather moist meadows, pastures, etc., where it sometimes 

 forms large colonies, field borders, open woods, and grassy slopes. Flowers May 



to June. r 1 J 1- 



DiSTRiBUTiON. Local in Britain, but widely distributed and often abundant where 

 it occurs, but not as yet recorded for Scotland. In Ireland rather rare, reported 

 absent from the north and south-west, but found in the centre, where it is scarcer m the 

 west than in the east. Europe from S. Scandinavia to Spain and to withm a few miles 

 of the Mediterranean (where it is replaced by 0. piaa and 0. Cbampagneuxn), Italy, 

 Balkan peninsula, Caucasus, Asia Minor, Siberia, Transcaucasia, Cyprus. 



Orchis morio L., Sp. pi. ed. i, p. 940 (i753)- O- crenulata Gilibert (1792)- 

 Singularly free from synonyms. 



' B.E.C p. 638 (1928). ^;.B. p. 75(1918)- 



