j8o native BRITISH ORCHIDACE^ 



arching forward over the petals, which are ovate obtuse, overlapping at tip, shorter 

 and paler than sepals, faintly i -nerved. Lip pointing downwards and forwards, wedge- 

 shaped at base, nearly as broad as long, convex (the reflexed sides making it look 

 longer than broad), longer than sepals, deep red-violet to pale rose, yellowish or 

 whfte in the centre, velvety with erect papillae at the base, with a few interrupted 

 lines or spots formed of dense tufts of bright red-violet hairs; side-lobes more or less 

 rhomboidal, minutely toothed or crenate towards the tip, mid-lobe slightly longer, 

 broadened, and with two entire or crenate lobelets at the apex, sometimes with an 

 intermediate tooth. The lip arches upwards at each side at the base to form a wide 

 oval chamber. Spur rather broad, about as long as the ovary, cylindrical, slightly 

 curved upwards, enlarged and club-shaped at the tip, nearly in the same plane with 

 the lip. Column short, with a little point at apex. Stigmas two, confluent, on the 

 roof and sides of the chamber, edged with a purpHsh line. Anther ovate, purphsh 

 or greenish grey; poUinia dark green (yeUow in white flowers); caudicles yellow, 

 transparent. Rostellum (pouch) rose-violet. Seeds rounded at apex, testa transparent, 

 cells not striate, cell-walls appearing double. 



A plant with spotted leaves sometimes occurs in a clump of plain-leaved ones. In 

 some localities spotted, in others unspotted leaves prevail. The flowers are said to 

 smell of elder. In Britain the sepals are usually acute, sometimes obtuse (var. obtusi- 

 flora Koch). The stem in August is hollow and compressible, Uke a reed, full of loose 

 transparent material. A plant 19 in. taU with over 40 flowers was found in E. Sussex, 

 and another with the lip replaced by a petal, without spur, in Kent, probably a 

 reversion to a primitive type before the Up had been differentiated from the petals. 

 In contrast with this was a plant above Grasse, in which both petals had been trans- 

 formed into lips,^ a case of ultra-development. The British plant differs from that 

 of Southern France, Italy, Switzerland and Germany, in which the leaves (often on 

 both sides) and sometimes the stem are in their lower parts covered with innumerable 

 reddish linear spots or dashes, without the large purple-black blotches often found 

 in Britain. I have, however, seen plants spotted like ours at Falaise (Brebisson, 

 Fl. Normandie, says the leaves in that part of France are usually spotted), Aix-les- 

 Bains and near Chambery, and Schulze^ mentions two places near Jena where the 

 leaves were thus blotched. WebsterS never saw the red-spotted form in England, nor 

 have I ever done so. The leaves of this form are often broader than in the British 

 plants. A white-flowered specimen with dark blotches on the leaves was received 

 from Ireland, which is very unusual. An ordinary O. masmla cultivated by the late 

 Mr Burton of Longner Hall, Salop, in some years produced two new bulbs instead 

 of one, the additional bulb flowering the second year. A double-flowered specimen 



1 A. Camus, Kiviera Scientif. p. 7 (1918). ' Schulze, Orch. Deutsch. p. 13. 



3 Brit. Orch. p. 63 (1898). 



