274 THE ORCHID REVIEW. 
the margin. A second photograph of this, showing the entire plant, bears 
out Mr. Potter’s remark that it is also most like O. Lanceanum in habit. 
Both were obtained from the same locality, and illustrate well what is 
already known of the variability of hybrids. It is a matter of regret that 
so handsome a plant should be so rare in cultivation, and we hope that 
our hybridists will now take the matter in hand. 
A BRITISH HYBRID ORCHID. 
Ev’DENCE as to the occurrence of Natural Hybrid Orchids in Britain is 
gradually accumulating, and the following note appears in the August 
number of the Journal of Botany (p. 360) :-— 
“On June 23rd, 1898, on the slope of the chalk escarpment north of 
Sevenoaks, I observed, growing in company with Orchis maculata and 
Gymnadenia conopsea, two flowering spikes of intermediate appearance, 
resembling the former in general aspect, and the latter in colour. Further 
examination showed that they resembled O. maculata in the stout spur 
without free honey, the spotted lip, and the absence of strong aromatic 
fragrance. In the leading generic character the flowers resembled Gymna- 
denia rather than Orchis, the viscid glands being twice as long as broad, 
destitute of a pouch, and so placed as to form the roof of the entrance to 
the nectary, the stigmatic surfaces being thus necessarily lateral. The 
spur, while as stout as that of O. maculata, differed from it in being slightly 
curved, and rather longer than the germen. Even in the minor details, 
such as the texture of the pollen masses and the nearly horizontal lateral 
sepals with strongly revolute margins, the affinity to G. conopsea was shown, 
as also in the fact that these sepals usually expanded before the lip. This 
year I again found in the same place two spikes of the intermediate plant, 
and, having submitted one of these to Mr. Frederick J. Hanbury, he agrees 
with me that the plant must be a hybrid. According to Darwin and 
Miller, O. maculata is fertilised by diptera, and G. conopsea by night-flying 
moths, but the occurrence of the hybrid shows that the same insect 
occasionally visits both. From evidence incidentally furnished in Pryor’s 
Flora of Hertfordshire, 1 believe that the plant known as Orchis latifolia 
var. angustifolia usually grows associated with G. conopsea, and I would 
recommend botanists who have observed this form to ascertain whether it 
be not, as I think probable, the hybrid in question.—H. PEIRsoN.” 
Although I have not seen the plants in question, I think from the 
description that they belong to Orchigymnadenia X Legrandiana (Camus 
in Journ. de Bot., 1892, p. 478), a natural hybrid with the above parentage, 
which has already been detected in Austria and France. 
R. A. ROLFE. 
