Orcllis.] OECHIDACE.E. 475 



Tribe I. Ophrydinej^. 



Anther 1, adnate to the face of the stigma. Pollen-masses gra- 

 nular : pollen cohering in an indefinite number of finally wa.vy 

 granules or lobes, attached by an irregular elastic cellular tissue 

 along the axis of the pollen-mass. 



I. Orchis, Linn. Orchis. 



" Lip spurred. Glands of the stalks of the pollen-masses con- 

 tained in a common little pouch." — Br. Fl. 



f " Glands of the pollen-masses separate," " bracts l-nerved, tubers undivided." — 



Bab. Mail. 



1. 0. Morio, L. Green-winged Meadow Orchis. " Lip 3-lobed 

 somewhat crenate, the middle lobe emarginate, sepals obtuse 

 ascending connivent, spur ascending blunt rather shorter than 

 the germen."— £r. Fl. p. 420. E. B. t. 2059. 



In diy or lather moist meadows and pastures ; abundantly. Fl. April — June. 



E.Med. — Fields at Quarr abbey, and elsewhere about Ryde. Plentiful on 

 Wootlon common, and in fields adjoining. Meadows about Rookley farm, 1845. 



W. Med. — Abundant about Cowes, Yarmouth, Newport, and most other parts 

 of the island. 



Root of 2 solid nearly globose tubers, often with a short point, and having a 

 few short stout fibres above them. Stem usually about 6, 8 or 10 inches high, 

 sometimes a foot or even 18 inches, erect, hollow, rounded, angular and purplish 

 above. Leaves much shorter than the stem, lanceolate or linear-lanceolate, pale 

 green, smooth and somewhat shining, but without spots, many-ribbed, paler with 

 a glaucous or silvery aspect beneath, slightly pointed and mucronate, the lower- 

 most spreading and mostly recurved or twisted andflattish, those next above them 

 more or less erect and folded, the highest of all acute, spalhaceous, clothing the 

 stem to within a short distance of the flower-spike. Bracts lanceolate, membra- 

 nous, coloured, about as long as the germen and incumbent on it, 3 — 5 nerved, 

 the nerves greenish, the lateral ones often obscure. Flowers resembling those of 

 O. mascula, but scentless, and fewer in comparison with that and other species of 

 the genus, commonly from 8 or 10 to 15 or 20, in an oblong-obtuse, lax or occa- 

 sionally crowded or compact spike, about 2 — 4 inches in length, varying in hue 

 from deepest purple to flesh-colour or (rarely) white, the darker shades exhibiting 

 a fine velvety lustre. Sepals coloured, porrected or ascending, connivent and 

 converging like a hood or helmet (hence the Latin name of the species) over the 

 column and very small lateral petals, which they almost wholly conceal; the late- 

 ral ones elliptical-oblong, very obtuse or rounded, oblique at the base, concave, 

 strongly ribbed or striated with purplish green lines, the superior sepal oblong, 

 plane and striate like the others. Lateral petals very small, sublinear-obtuse, 

 striated like the sepals ; lip large, pale and spotted with purple in the centre, the 

 two lateral lobes approaching to semiorbicular, deeply and irregularly notched or 

 crenate, veined with purple, strongly deflexed ; middle lobe shallow, much smaller 

 and equal to or shorter than the lateral pair, emarginate, with a broad shallow 

 sinus, the segments crenate; spur ascending, shorter than the germen, very ob- 

 tuse, compressed and dilated horizontally, not cloven at the end, its orifice nearly 

 glabrous. Pollen-masses greenish yellow, 2-lobed, of many large grains cohering 

 together on a golden yellow elastic stalk or pedicel, capable of being drawn out to 

 a great length. 



