OPHRYDE^—SERAPIADIN^— ORCHIS 193 



rarely with streaks, heavy Hnes or blotches. Sometimes the pattern is geometric 

 with single or double loops, but these are probably due to lingering traces of 

 hybridity. Side-lobes rounded out, mid-lobe small, rather broad, tongue-Uke or 

 wedge-shaped (separated by an obtuse sinus rather than an incision), sometimes 

 almost absent, rarely long and prominent (var. macranthd). Spur conico-cylindrical, 

 obtuse, straight or very slightly curved, about two-thirds as long as ovary, or less. 

 Seeds with long straight somewhat club-shaped transparent testa, rounded at apex, 

 larger meshed than in 0. incarnata; cells with broad raised walls, not striate; embryo 

 oval nearly as broad as testa^ (PI. D, fig. 3 (4) (p. 94)). 



In Southern England 0. pmtermissa flowers usually 10-14 days later than 0. incar- 

 nata, but in Durham Prof. Heslop Harrison gives it as flowering before 0. incarnata? 

 Figures of single flowers are given in B.E.C. PL i (1917), and by the Stephensons 

 (J.B. PI. 559 coloured (1920) and PI. 566 (1921)), and an exhaustive study with 

 photograph was pubUshed by the latter.3 The grandchildren of the original specimen 

 of O. pra:termissa (figured as 0. incarnata in the Keport of the Ashmolean Society in 1904) 

 flowered in 1926 in the garden of Mr B. S. Ogle, at Steeple Aston, and showed no 

 appreciable variation except in stature. Their parents flowered in 191 3. 



Although so long confused with 0. incarnata, 0. prcetermissa appears to be more 

 closely allied to O, latijolia. Dr Stephenson says: "The habit is precisely similar, 

 but O. latijolia is distinguished by the spots or rings on the leaves, which are almost 

 always present, and by the very distinct lip-pattern of continuous lines. By far the 

 greatest number of plants of 0. latijolia have paler tinted lips, often nearly white 

 inside the lined pattern, not the soft purples or magenta of O. prcetermissa, nearly 

 always more slender spurs, and generally a different facies"."* 



During three years I observed a large colony of O. latijolia near Vence (about 

 1000 ft. above Nice), where it was the only dactylorchid present. 0. incarnata, 0. prce- 

 termissa and 0. maculata have never been found in the neighbourhood, either by 

 Mile Camus, who published a list of orchids found there during two or three seasons 

 {Kiviera ScientiJ. p. i (1919)), or by myself, nor was any hybrid of O. latijolia ever 

 discovered. It was therefore clear that any differences between individual plants were 

 due to variation, and not to hybridisation. 0. latijolia was here an isolated self- 

 contained species, free from any taint of hybridity, and could not possibly be a 

 hybrid between O. prcetermissa and 0. maculata, as Dr Druce claims to be the case 

 with English latijolia. On May loth, 1920, I found one specimen which would, 

 I think, have been taken for 0. pratermissa if found in England, with large pale 

 mauve flowers, short conical spur not quite half as long as ovary, and quite unspotted 

 leaves. Another specimen had a flat lip, of pale violet colour, covered with rows of 



I O.K. p. 267, fig. 4 (1923). » B.E.C. p. 170 (1917). 



3 J.B. p. 65 (1923). -t Ihid. p. 67 (1923). 



GBO 25 



