OPHRYDEjE—ADVENTIVE species 243 



Woolmer Forest, three miles away, had been unloaded there 35 years before the 

 Orchis appeared. It was at first thought to be a yellow 0. mascula, but Mrs Tristram 

 examined a good many dried specimens of 0. pallens from Germany, which she con- 

 cluded were identical with the Liss plant, in which the late Mr C. E. Salmon of Reigate 

 concurred. I sent her a water-colour drawing by my late wife of 0. pallens from 

 Switzerland, and she said that except that the Liss flowers were rather more yellow, 

 the plants were exactly the same. She sent me a dried specimen of it, which in my 

 opinion was 0. pallens. She mentioned that it had a very distinct smell, and Mr Salmon 

 wrote: "Scent strong and peculiar". O. pallens would have deserved the name 

 samhucina much more than O. sambucina itself, on account of its elder-flower smell. 

 The last time Mrs Tristram saw them there were three plants, two of which were 

 flowering. Her grandmother, just before her death, ordered the remaining plant to 

 be sent to her, but it arrived without the new tuber. She suggests that seeds may 

 have been brought over on the claws of birds. In any case it is remarkable that a 

 sub-alpine plant like 0. pallens should have sprung up spontaneously in England. 



Orchis laxiflora Lam. 

 Adventive near Hartlepool. See 0. laxiflora. 



Serapias NEGLECTA De Notaris 



Tubers ovoid. Stem 10-30 cm. Leaves linear-lanceolate, acute, not spotted. Bracts 

 oval, acute, often tinged violet, equalling or slightly exceeding the helmet. Flowers 

 with a peculiar scent, large, 2-6, in a short spike. Sepals and petals connivent in a 

 helmet, joined at the base, free at the tip. Lip 3-lobed, the rounded side-lobes curved 

 upwards, projecting forwards a little from the helmet, mid-lobe more or less reflexed, 

 large, oval, with wavy edges and bristling as well as its base with long hairs, and with 

 two nearly parallel dark red callosities at the base, forming a channel leading to the 

 column. Colour very variable, yellow or buff (with red or rose edges), brick red, 

 or deep rose-red, very rarely pure yellow throughout. 



A plant of this grew for a time in a field in the Isle of Wight, but has disappeared. 

 As this is a Riviera and Italian plant, it is difficult to believe that it was introduced 

 without human agency. B.E.C. p. 309 (1918). 



31-2 



