198 NATIVE BRITISH ORCHIDACE.E 



with oval leaves, nearly as broad as long (var. mpudicus A. and G.), but ordinarily 

 they are much longer than broad. Of 35 specimens gathered in June, 1919, in the 

 Winchester district, 21 had spotted leaves (of which 12 had ringed spots) and 14 were 

 unspotted. All the stems, leaves, spikes, bracts, and flowers appeared to be ahke. 

 The lip-pattern was very similar in them all, two longitudinal loops with additional 

 lines and spots— the lines often interrupted, but not broken up into innumerable 

 dots as often occurs in 0. pmtermissa. Ringed spots are much more frequent in 

 0. latijolia than in 0. maculata or elodes, in wliich they are rare, and less frequent on 

 the Continent than in England. 



The spike when young is conical, sometimes ending in a pencil of bracts concealmg 

 the buds (comose) {N'^.t. macrohracteata Schur). The side-sepals are at first erect, later 

 reflexed, spotted inside, the upper unspotted. It is very rarely found with white 

 flowers. I once found what appeared to be a white-flowered specimen above Grasse, 

 but on comparing it with a pure white O. maculata, it was seen to be very faintly 

 tinged with violet. I found a beautiful specimen near the Lac de Bourget, with violet 

 sepals and petals and white lip with very faint indistinct markings. 



The late Rev. E. S. Marshall wrote as follows on receiving a plant of the Winchester 

 O. latijolia gathered by Mr Comber and myself, June 26th, 1916: "This is exactly 

 the spotted leaved plant (except that your plants have narrower foliage, somewhat, 

 and smaller blotches), down to the markings of the labellum, of the plant figured 

 by M. Schuke (PI. 21) as 0. latijolia''. This plate represents typical 0. latijolia as 

 understood by the author of Die Orchidaceen Deutschlands. "Sowerby's plate 2308, 

 English Botany, ed. i, was . . .by error named by Smith as 0. latijolia L., but it correctly 

 represents the purple-flowered form of O. incarnata. The error had been pointed out 

 by Babington, and a figure of 0. latijolia. No. 2973, drawn by J. W. Salter appeared 

 in £.B. Suppl. vol. V. The plate of 0. latijolia in Curtis' Vlora Lond. represents 



0. incarnata." ^ 



PI. G, fig. I, shows a specimen from Lower Austria. Heer P. Vermeulen^ states 

 that there are two forms of 0. latijolia in Holland. 



(i) 0. latijolia majalis Kittel. Flowers latter half of May (a plant or two end of 

 April). Stem dwarf, mostly under 20 cm. Leaves short, broad, ovate-lanceolate with 

 dots or rounded spots, about 8 per cent, unspotted. Flowers small, dark red-purple, 

 mid-lobe often prolonged. Spur dark, slenderer than in the following. Habitat: 

 meadows, sometimes dunes. Considered to be O.purpurella by some Dutch botanists. 

 Four spikes received by me from Heer Vermeulen, June 12th, 1931, were certainly 

 not O. purpurella. Plants sent to Dr T. Stephenson in 1929 were all considered by 

 him to be 0. latijolia, but diff'ering somewhat from the British form. 



(2) O. latijolia junialis Vermeulen. Blooms nearly a month later, about June 15 th. 



• Townsend, VI. Hants, pp. 405-22 (1904). ' Nederl. Kruid. Archief, Afl. 2, pp. 147-54 (i93o)- 



