OPHRYDEM—SERAPIADIN^— ORCHIS 197 



than the buds, often purple-tipped, 3- or more nerved. Ovary slender, twisted, 

 6-ridged, often tinged purple. Sepals narrow, lanceolate, inner edge straight, outer 

 rounded, the lateral erect, often back to back, spotted or not, the upper slightly 

 shorter and broader, erect or arched forwards. Petals forming a hood, lanceolate, 

 concave at tip, violet outside, paler witliin. Lip directed downwards and slightly 

 forwards, flat, or sides gently sloping downwards, sometimes transversely oval, 

 slightly broader than long, sometimes wedge-shaped at base with a more or less 

 obcordate outline, shallowly 3-lobed at apex, side-lobes rounded, sometimes with 

 an obtuse angle in the middle, often irregularly crenate or toothed; mid-lobe smaller, 

 usually sUghtly longer, tongue-shaped or triangular, entire. Markings usually con- 

 sisting of two single or double longitudinal loops (often of interrupted lines), 

 with supplementary hieroglyphics, but sometimes of short lines and spots variously 

 arranged. The centre of the lip is often paler or whitish, and the lip itself densely 

 clothed with extremely minute erect acute papilla. Spur conico-cylindrical, some- 

 times slightly curved, obtuse, equal to or shorter than the ovary, pointing downwards, 

 sometimes spotted within. Column short, erect, anther oval, rose-violet, poUinia 

 grey-green, caudicles yellow. Stigma on roof of mouth of spur, bordered by a 

 purple line, very viscous. Seeds with transparent testa, cells most delicately and 

 somewhat spirally reticulate (Rchb. Icotjes, xir, 57)," Very like those of 0. prcetermissa, 

 but somewhat shorter and broader, and inclined to taper and curve in the apical 

 half", and with smaller mesh, the differences being merely of degree. Seeds from 

 plants at Chippenham Fen and near Winchester showed no sign of 0. maculata or of 

 hybridism (T. A. Dymes). Cells of the testa of adult seeds with rectilinear walls not 

 striate in individuals growing isolated, sometimes having a few strias in plants growing 

 near 0. incarnata and 0. maculata, probably the result of crossing (Camus, Icon. 

 p. 233 (1929)).' 



A handsome marsh orchid with conspicuous ring-spotted leaves (i.e. spots with 

 green centres) but also found with dark or faint often small transversely oblong or 

 rounded spots, more rarely with unspotted leaves, and showy pale lilac or red-violet 

 flowers. The tubers are said to be sometimes long-tailed in wet ground, but this may 

 perhaps be due to crossing, e.g. with 0. incarnata, as they are mostly described and 

 figured as short. The stem is usually from 15 to 40 cm. tall, and is hollow, but not 

 so much so as in 0. incarnata, in which the stem is often a thin-walled tube; in dry 

 soil it may be nearly solid, except for a narrow central tube. Though called latifolia, 

 the leaves are often not broader than in the wood-form of O. maculata, and are not 

 so thick and firm as in O. prcetermissa. They narrow but little towards the base, and 

 are broadest below the middle, the sides nearly parallel for some distance, and then 

 tapering to an obtuse point. In the Engadine, at 6000 ft., the author found plants 



' For var. eborensis vide p. 219 below. 



