228 NATIVE BRITISH ORCHIDACEiE 



2. Ophrys ARANIFERA Huds. 

 PI. 5 5 B. Spider Orchid 



Tubers two, entire, globose or ovoid. Stem 1-3 dm. (rarely 4-6 dm. abroad), erect, 

 round, often flexuous, glabrous, yellow-green. Leaves ovate-lanceolate to oblong, 

 rather short in Britain, somewhat obtuse, often with a small point (mucro), spreading 

 or recurved, green or grey-green, the upper lanceolate, acute, clasping the stem; 

 nerves 10-14 with irregular cross-veins. Spike erect, lax, few-flowered (1-7); flowers 

 distant, of medium size, scentless, finally turning a yellowish brown. Bracts lanceo- 

 late, slightly obtuse, concave, pale green, glabrous, 7-9-nerved, the lower long. 

 Ovary long, curved, 6-ridged, not, or but slightly twisted. Sepals yellow-green, 

 oblong, obtuse, 5-nerved, with rolled-back edges, the lateral spreading, the upper 

 erect, slightly arched forward. Petals spreading, strap-shaped, rounded or squarish 

 at the tip, wavy-edged, narrower and shorter than the sepals, i -nerved, green or 

 brownish, glabrous or with very short hairs in front. Lip about equal to sepals, 

 rounded, oval-oblong or oval-triangular, nearly orbicular when flattened, strongly 

 convex, notched at the tip, sometimes with a tooth in the notch, with or without 

 two obtuse conical hunches near the base, their outside surface and the sides of the 

 lip densely clothed with rather long brown-purple hairs, forming a kind of fur collar 

 round the velvety central area, the edge of the lip often paler or yellowish green. 

 Markings leaden, glabrous, rather glossy, consisting of two parallel lines, sometimes 

 attached to a collar or joined in the middle forming an H. On each side of the base 

 of the column is a small shining eye-like staminode. Column nearly at right angles 

 to hp, slightly curved forward, sometimes a httle hispid at the back, forming a small 

 arched chamber at the base, on the inside surface of wliich is the glistening stigma. 

 Anther like the head of a bird with yellowish eyes and a short obtuse beak. PoUinia 

 and caudicles yellow. Rostellum of two separate pouches, each enclosing a viscid 

 disc. Ripe capsule oblong with prominent ridges. Seeds: cells of the transparent 

 testa with undulate walls and abundant transverse striae.^ 



The so-called variety fmfera, the Drone Orchid,- cannot be maintained. It was 

 defined as having the petals minutely rough or downy in front, the lip without lobes, 

 and as flowering six weeks to two months later. The lobing is variable in both forms, 

 and both forms have been collected in flower from April to early June; the roughness 

 or downiness of the petals is the only real difFerence.3 Mile Camus,4 however, who 

 has done so much microscopical research on orchids, says that the petals in aranifera 

 are never completely glabrous, but are papillose, sometimes briefly pubescent. 5 



1 Camus, Icon. p. 332. - Smith, English Flora, iv, 31 (1828). 



3 E.B. ed. 3, pp. 1 1 2-1 3 (1869). t Camus, Icon. pp. 351-4. 



5 Vide also C. B. Tahourdin, O.K. p. 230 (1928). 



