232 NATIVE BRITISH ORCHIDACE^ 



rose. Mile Camus found that rose-coloured sepals became wliite when cultivated 

 in a pot in the shade, and I have repeatedly observed that the coloured sepals of all 

 Ophrys become white if the flower has opened in the house. I received beautiful 

 specimens of the var. albescens from Folkestone from Mr H. Walker, June 17th, 1930. 

 This species is easily distinguished from 0. apifera, of which it has been considered 

 by some botanists to be a variety, by the short rose or white dagger-shaped petals, 

 the flat broad undivided lip, the thick trifid appendbc turned up in front of the lip, 

 and not behind it as in 0. apifera, the short straight beak of the anther, and the flat 

 stiff ribbon-like caudicles, only about half as long as the thread-hke flexible caudicles 



of 0. apifera. 



Occasionally, in late-flowering plants, the basal leaves are withered, or apparently 

 absent, at the time of flowering, as in a plant gathered at Shorncliffe, June 23rd, 191 8. 

 This plant also had a very broad lower bract and very dark-coloured lip. A specimen 

 sent me at the same time had three anthers and three columns, the latter coherent 

 almost to the summit. Each of the side-anthers had only one poUinium, and no viscid 

 disc, and was open to the base showing the ends of the caudicles. The middle anther 

 was normal, but the caudicle of one poUinium was not yet attached to its viscid disc. 

 Max Schulzei figures a flower with two complete lips. This happens also in other 

 species and genera. I have seen it in Epipactis latifo/ia. The two lips are side by side. 

 In such cases the true lip is absent, and the two obsolete lower stamens of the outer 

 whorl have developed into lips. Sometimes the true lip is also present, immediately 



below the other two. 



0. arachnites develops three anthers more often than other species, though they 

 are of very rare occurrence. They are due to the exceptional development of the two 

 suppressed anthers a^ and a^ (Text-fig. 2), and are a partial reversion to the ancestral 

 6-anthered flower. A specimen of 0. arachnitiformis at Hyeres had four anthers, 

 three identical with those of some English plants, and one (^3, Text-fig. 2) face to 

 face with the normal fertile anther. PI. 58 C shows an example of this in a British 



0. apifera. 



Habitat. Chalk downs, meadows and hedges on chalk. Flowers May to June. 



Distribution. Rare and very local in Britain, restricted to Kent, and the only 

 orchid peculiar to that county. 



Central and Southern Europe. Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the 



Balkan peninsula. 



Ophrys arachnites Rich., F/. moen.-franc. 11, 89 (1772); Lamarck, Fl. Franf. 



Ill 515 (1778) ; Rouy, Fl. France, xni, no. O. fuciflor A Haller, Icon. pi. Helv. 



t. 24, figs. 2, 3 (1795); Reich., Fl Germ. exc. t. i, p. 128 (1830). O. insecti- 



fera -n Adrachnites L., Sp. pi ed. i, p. 949 (i753), subsequently corrected 



I Orch. Deutschlands, pi. 27. 



