OPHRYDE^—SERAPIADINyE—ORCHIS 187 



walls containing sugary products.' Column short, small. Stigma longer than broad, 

 with purple edge, very viscous and gUstening. Anther ovate, coloured hke the 

 petals, poUinia emerald or grey-green. Rostellum rose or violet, with a fold between 

 the anther-cells. Seeds with short broad testa, enlarged and rounded above, mesh 

 small, embryo oval, considerably narrower than testa,^ cell-walls broad, raised, giving 

 the appearance of marginal papillae: here and there, cells not striate.3 PI. D, fig. 3 (5).'* 



Var. pulchella Druce. A beautiful colour-form with violet flowers and bright 

 crimson markings, the labellum sometimes less reflexed, strongly marked with darker 

 interrupted lines. 5 



Var. dunensis Druce.^ A dwarf form found on sand-dunes, sometimes (as on the 

 sands of Barry) in great abundance, in a " series of bright colours from pure white, 

 various shades of rose-red and crimson to darkest purple". 



Forma atrirubra (PI. 44). Dwarf (9-15 cm.) but one giant was 20 cm. high, spike 

 8 cm. Stem but slightly hollow. Leaves thick, gradually tapering, somewhat acute, 

 unspotted, often exceeding the oblong sometimes one-sided dense spike. Flowers 

 small, rich dark rose-red, of most beautiful and brilHant colour. Bracts brownish, 

 not much exceeding flowers. Side-sepals erect, back to back. Sides of hp reflexed, 

 irregularly toothed or crenate. Spur short, conical, obtuse, truncate or emarginate. 

 A few plants have narrow leaves and a lax few-flowered spike. Dunes amongst dwarf 

 willows, S. Wales, in sandy black comparatively dry soil. Flowers June. Locally 

 fairly abundant. 



Var. albiflora. Flowers pure white. New Forest. 



PIabitat. Bogs, turbaries, and marshy ground, sometimes growing in standing 

 water, also found locally abundant in damp sandy flats between sand-dunes, amongst 

 Sa/ix repens, etc. The variety pulchella Dr. occurs in Sphagnum and peat bogs, but 

 also in ordinary marshy ground. According to Camus in the environs of Paris 

 0. incarnata prefers calcareous marshes or ground watered by calcareous streams. 7 



Flowers May to June. In Southern England it is the first marsh orchid to flower, 

 blooming before 0. latijoUa and 0. pmtermissa, but according to Camus7 0. latifolia 

 flowers 20 days before 0. incarnata in the neighbourhood of Paris. 



Distribution. Throughout Great Britain and Ireland, including the Shetlands 

 (Trail, Ann. Scot. Nat. Hist. p. 250 (1906)). Almost all Europe except in the extreme 

 south, A small colony with purple flowers was found in Asturias by Dr Stephenson,^ 

 but it appears to be absent south of the Pyrenees. Caucasus, Siberia. 



• Camus, Icon. p. 224 (1928). ^ O.R. p. 267, fig. 5 (1923) (Dymes). 



3 B.E.C. p. 434 (1921) (Dymes). 4 Vide p. 94. 5 B.E.C. p. 167 (1917)- * ■^^"^- P- ^i^ (1915)- 



7 Camus, Icon. p. 225 (1928), quotes me as saying that O. incarnata is absent from calcareous ground. 

 What I said was that it had not so far been found on chalk downs, i.e. away from marshes. Mr P. M. 

 Hall has since told me that he has found one or two specimens on chalk downs. /.B. p. 49 (1918). 



8 /.B. p. 72 (1927). 



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