Ophrys.] obchidace^. 483 



edges, of a shape too irregular and variable, even on the same individual 

 specimen, to admit of accurale description : this central area is bounded 

 on each side posteriorly hy a densely pilose ridge or prominence, which 

 in some specimens is produced into a dislinct fleshy lobe or auricle pointing for- 

 wards: on the anterior part of the lip the pile is very close and short, and its 

 thin greenish edges are quite glabrous: in some of my specimens the lip is entire 

 in front, or the notch is occupied by a small glandular prominence. Column 

 green, porrected, a little downy, its vaulted summit attenuated into a straight, 

 simple, horizontal or slightly deflexed but not hooked point, having no small 

 resemblance to the head and bill of a goose or duck when viewed laterally; 

 an<Aer-cei/i parallel, open throughout in front; pnllinia of many coarse, yellow, 

 cohering, angular masses, of very unequal size, their stalks bright yellow, with 

 flattish, diaphanous, slightly cupped glands. 



The hairy lip, from its colour, form and markings, hears a striking likeness to 

 the abdomen of a largish spider, particularly when faded to the lighter shade it 

 finally assumes before commencing to wither. The column, too, with the diverg- 

 ing upper petals, may, with but little assistance from the imagination, be shaped 

 into a bird brooding, with expanded wings, over its nest, as in the act of feeding 

 its young. 



3. O. muscifera, Huds. Fly Orchis. " Lip oblong trifid, mid- 

 dle segment larger 3-lobed, lateral inner sepals filiform, anther 

 short obtuse." — Br. Fl. p. 426. E. B. t. 64. Fl. Dan. viii. t. 

 1398 (bona). Hooker and Graves, Fl. Lond. iv. 



In clayey, chalky or limestone pastures, pits, woods, and on grassy banks and 

 declivities ; not very uncommon, but, like our other species of this genus, ex- 

 tremely inconstant to its stations, and variable in quantity in different years. FL 

 May— July. If. 



£J. Med. — Quarr copse, in some pleniy, Miss Theodora Price, 1838, and where 

 I have since found it. In a chalky hollow on the N. side of Mersley down, spa- 

 ringly, 1844. Norris castle, G. Kirkpatrick, Esq. Under Arreton down, 1844. 

 [Bloodstone copse, near the new water- works, 1864, Alfred Goode, Esq. — Edrs.] 



W. Med. — in considerable abundance in the copse of low brushwood (chiefly 

 hazle) on the down at the top of Alvington chalk-pit, on the road from Caris- 

 brooke to Yarmouth, Miss Dennett, 1848. In the great plantation of fir, beech, 

 &c., near Westover (several specimens upwards of two feet high), 1843. Field 

 at Egypt, by Cowes, Rev. Mr. Mann. Cliff above Gurnet bay. Miss G. Kilder- 

 bee ! Shady lane under Carisbrooke castle, and on the borders of a lane leading 

 from Roughborougli farm-house up to the down, G. Kirkpatrick, Esq. Wood by 

 Calbourne New Barn, and plentifully on a rough, stony, sloping field nearly at 

 the back of the Tolt copse, Gatcombe, 1840. 



Tubers 2, roundish and downy, with a few stout fibres above them. Stem 

 erect, from 8 or 12 inches to 2 feet high, much more slender than in the last spe- 

 cies, usually somewhat glaucous, a little flexuose, terete or snbcompressed, with 

 one or two slight angles, glabrous. Leaves like those of the last, ova to-lanceolate, 

 bright green and slightly glaucous ; the upper ones erect, sheath-like and acute ; 

 inferior broader and patent or spreading, more ovale or obovate, obtuse or even 

 rounded, often considerably shining, mostly withered at the tips. Spike racemose, 

 few- (from about 4- to 10-) flowered. Flowers sessile, much smaller and narrower 

 than in O. apifera, distant, scentless, resembling on general inspection some kind 

 of fly. /Sepals greenish, concave, spreading, ovato-oblong, 3-nerved, their edges 

 revolute, nearly equal, the upper one rounded, the lateral somewhat pointed. La- 

 teral petals minute, pilose, brownish purple, linear, and from their revolute mar- 

 gins nearly cylindrical and very slender, like the antennae of an insect, shorter than 

 the sepals, spreading or porrected; lower petal or lip about 5 lines in length, much 

 exceeding the calyx, finely pilose or velvety, oblong, trifid, the two lateral lobes 

 small, dentiform, pointing downwards, convex or vaulted, obtuse ; inferior middle 

 lobe very much larger, nearly orbicular, but much narrowed in appearance by 

 lateral deflexion, its inferior margin without any appendage, but with a deep 



