230 NATIVE BRITISH ORCHIDACE^ 



slightly curved forwards at the apex, without the elbow or double curve of some 

 species, but the result is the same, the poUinia remaining slightly tilted upwards after 

 the downward movement. The pouch containing the viscid disc is enclosed within 

 the foot of the anther-cell, and is thus kept damper than in 0. muscifera, and the down- 

 ward movement is more rapid. The plant is entirely dependent on insects for pollina- 

 tion. I watched flowers of this species, in May, 1929, at Challes-les-Eaux, Savoie, 

 together with those of O. arachnites and 0. miscifera, but although both the latter 

 were a number of times visited by Hymenoptera, nothing came to O. aranijera. 

 Delpino stated! that in Liguria hardly one flower in 3000 sets a capsule. As, how- 

 ever, it occurs in thousands and does not appear to multiply vegetatively, his observa- 

 tions were probably made in a bad season for insects. M. Houzeau de Lehaie states 

 that after a very unfavourable spring in Belgium hardly a capsule was to be found 

 on any of the species of Ophrys except the self-fertilised 0. apijera. I examined 

 18 spikes of 0. aranijera near Swanage, with 27 open flowers, of wliich four had 

 both poUinia removed and six had pollen on the stigma. As only one flower was as 

 yet open on most of these spikes there had not been time for many visits. There can 

 be little doubt that the flowers are visited (probably by a Hymenopteron), and that 

 the attraction is a suggested resemblance of the lip to the female of the visiting insect 

 concerned. 



OPHRYS ARANIFERA x MUSCIFERA 



PL 55 A. X O. hybridaPokorny 



Stem rather taU, up to 35 cm. Leaves erect, slightly spreading, broadly lanceolate 

 acute, grey-green. Spike lax, flowers few, distant, clearly intermediate between the 

 parents. Sepals long, green, spreading, oblong, the upper erect, edges rolled back. 

 Petals narrow, rather long, brownish velvety in front. Lip broad as m 0. aranijera, 

 with pronounced side-lobes like O. nmscijera, slightly liispid, mid-lobe broad, deeply 

 notched, with or without appendix, velvety, brown. Markings a collar and sliield, 

 glabrous, leaden, bordered with a wliitish Hne. Anther with a short beak, as in 

 O. aranijera. A second specimen had a broader chestnut-brown lip with an oUve- 



green margin. 



In general appearance it is nearer to 0. aranijera, but the influence of O. muscijera 

 was cfearly visible in the narrow dark velvety petals with rolled-back edges, the con- 

 spicuous side-lobes of the flatter lip, and the quadrangular shield. 



Two specimens were found in an open wood near Wye, Kent, and were handsomer 

 than either of the parents, which grew close at hand. Both pollinia had been removed 

 from two flowers, but no pollen had been left on the stigma. 



I Ult. osserv. s. Dicog. Parte i, 177. 



