OPHRYDE^—SERAPIADINyE—OPHRYS 231 



The lowest left-hand figure in E.B.S. No. 2649, called in the third edition 0. aranifera 

 var. ^ jucijera, appears to be this hybrid. 



Ophrys arachnites x aranifera, vide O. arachnites, p. 234. O. aranifera x apifera, p. 241. 



3. Ophrys arachnites (L.) Rich, 

 (O. fiiciflora Reich, p.) 



PI. 56 A. Late Spider Orchid 



Tubers two, ovoid; roots rather thick, sinuous, tapering to a narrow flattened point. 

 Stem i|-4 dm., erect, solid, round, sinuous, glabrous. Leaves 2-5, the basal 

 spreading or erect, the upper 1-2 erect, loosely clasping the stem, the basal (sometimes 

 withered at time of flowering) oblong-lanceolate to ovate-oblong, obtuse or sub- 

 acute, glabrous, grey-green, sometimes wavy-edged, with ± 15 nerves and numerous 

 cross-veins. Spike lax with 2-6 rather large flowers with petaloid sepals and broad 

 conspicuously marked lip. Bracts green, concave, lanceolate, acute or obtuse, 

 longer than the ovary, the lowest sometimes leaf-like. Ovary sessile, linear, 6-ridged, 

 curved, rather long, slightly twisted. Sepals oval-oblong, obtuse, keeled, with 1-3 

 green nerves, glabrous, petaloid, usually pale rose, rarely white, the edges rolled back, 

 the lateral spreading, the upper arched forward. Petals short, obtusely triangular 

 with two rounded auricles at the base, making them somewhat dagger-shaped, 

 faintly 3-nerved, rose, rarely wliite, densely velvety with short hairs. Lip broad, 

 often subquadrangular and broader towards the tip, entire, rarely with a shght 

 incision on each side, red-brown, dark brown, or brown-purple, velvety, with two 

 slight or prominent basal hunches, a small sliining eye-like knob on each side of 

 the base of the column, and a thick trifid appendix turned sharply up in front of the 

 lip. The latter is relatively but shghtly convex, broader and flatter than in O. apifera, 

 adorned with a complicated glabrous shining pattern of yellow lines often enclosing 

 three circles, prolonged in a land of collar round the base of the lip. Column as 

 long as the petals, forming an arched chamber surmounted by the anther. Stigma 

 on the inside surface of this chamber, the rostellum formed of two slightly oval 

 yellowish pouches, each enclosing a colourless viscid gland, to which the pollinium 

 is attached in front of its centre. Pollinia and caudicles bright yellow, the latter 

 short, translucent, ribbon-shaped, elbowed in the middle. Seed-capsule slightly 

 enlarged towards the tip, with three more or less prominent ridges. Seeds: cells 

 of netted transparent oblong testa marked with nearly parallel transverse strix. 



The lip is rarely sub-orbicular, with the sides more reflexed. The flower is very 

 variable. Camus {Icon. pp. 309-12) gives over 30 named varieties and forms, some 

 of which are very slight. The variety albescens Brebisson has white sepals instead of 



