Ophrys.] oechidace^. 483 



IV. Ophrys, Linn. 



" Lip without a spur. Glands of the stalks of the pollen-m%sses 

 each in a distinct little pouch." — Br. Fl. 



1. O.opi/era, Huds. Bee Orchis. Yect. Bee Floiver. "Lip tumid 

 trifid, the intermediate lobe recurved at the margin emarginate 

 with a long subulate reflexed appendage in the notch rather elon- 

 gated with a hooked point, inner sepals oblong bluntisli downy." 

 ~Br. Fl. p. 425. E. B. t. 383. 0. insectifera i., L. 



Ill dry meadows, pastilles, woods and thickets, on chalky banks, downs, and on 

 wet slipped clay-land ; far from uncommon ; in some years even plenliful, in 

 others comparatively of rare occurrence, i^/. June, July. T^c. August. 11. 



E. Med. — In Quarr copse, occasionally, chiefly in the old slone-workings or pits 

 now covered with grass or brushwood. Binstead stone-iiits, and in ihe rough 

 pasture- fields between the village and Miss Player's lodge, along the footway 

 from Hyde. Common about Ryde, in various places, in 1839, as in the field in 

 which Quarr abbey stands, and between it and Ninham. Field opposite Lord 

 Spencer's, Ryde, 1841, and in Pelham fields. Abundant in the UndercliflT aiid 

 other parts of the island in 1843. At the Orchard, Old Park, between Niton and 

 Blackgang, 1841. Abundantly on Kenncrley heath, in sandy loam, growing 

 amongst the furze and very fine, 1843. Above While-cliff bay, between the pre- 

 ventive-station and Culver cliff, Admiral Brenton .'.'.' Very common on the 

 landslip at Bonchurch, and on St. Boniface down, S. Hailstone, jun., Esq. In 

 the meadow at St. Boniface, Mr. W. D. Snooke. Brading down, Mr. Lawrence. 

 About Noiris castle, Misa G. Kilderhee. Steephill, Pulteney. 



W. Med. — Pastures at Egypt, by W. Cowes, the seat of Sir Thos. Tancred, 

 Bart. In a wood near Yarmouth. Font of the down near Freshwater, Mrs. 

 Rushworth, B. T. W., and the Rev. G. E. Smith, who tells me it is particularly 

 fine there. Northwood park, Gurnet bay, Miss G. Kildcrbee. Calbourne Bot- 

 tom, Mr. Massey. Carisbrooke, Pulteney. 



A specimen with the flowers white, the lip only being greenish, was found by 

 Mrs. Martin at Ventnor. 



Root of 2 roundish or ovate tubers, with several stout white fibres at the crown. 

 Stem from 8 or 10 to 18 inches or even 2 feet in height, rounded, smooth, solid. 

 Leaves alternate, sheathing, slightly glaucous and often shining, ovato-lanceolale, 

 the upper ones erect, the lowermost spreading. Spike of several large, dis- 

 tant, erect or often resupinale flowers. Sepals 3, broadly ovate, concave, obtuse, 

 spreading and glabrous, of a beautiful peach-blossom colour, with 3 green ribs, of 

 which the middle one is broadest and most conspicuous, sometimes nearly colour- 

 less, at other times a rich maroon or purple. 'The two lateral petals small, nar- 

 rowly oblong and obtuse, greenish and hairy, erecto- patent, with strongly reflexed 

 edges dilated or auricled at the base ; lip large, with a broad, convex, smooth 

 disk, in 5 unequal, marginal, deflexed lobes, the two uppermost triangular, pointed, 

 the intermediate pair more rounded and greenish, the lowest and central lobe pro- 

 duced into a greenish, recurved, ligulate and pointed appendage; the central and 

 upper lobes are densely pilose, the intermediate ones nearly as smooth as the disk, 

 which is of a rich, purple, velvety brown, streaked and spotted with greenish yellow 

 in a manner diSicult to convey an idea of by words, and liable to considerable varia- 

 tion in pattern : the colour of the lip is also liable to great variation even in the 

 same plant, often diluted, as it always is on fading away, to a dull reddish or livid 

 fawn-colour, like that of O. aranifera, the sepals remaining deeply tinged, whilst 

 the flowers, whose sepals are pale, retain the usual rich hue of the lip unaltered. 

 Column linear, greenish, its summit vaulted, with a twice-curved pointed prolonga- 

 tion of itself beyond the pollen-masses, the stems of which lie loosely in 2 somewhat 

 distant membranous grooves, ending in the very distinct piiir of globular sacs or 

 pouches that receive the flattened transparent glands of the stalks. Stigma a 



