﻿July, 1904.] 



THE ORCHID REVIEW. 



ORC HI-GYM NADENI A x LEG RAN DIANA. 



A very interesting Orchid has been gathered near Dorking, by F. A. 

 Marshead, Esq., of Guildford, who found it growing with Orchis maculata, 

 and on comparison I believe it to be a natural hybrid between the species 

 named and Gymnadenia conopsea, which is known under the above name. 

 A note respecting it appeared in these pages in 1899 (vol. vii., p. 274), and 

 it may be advisable to complete its history. Such a hybrid was discovered 

 in Austria as long ago as 1875, and was described by Reichardt under the 

 name of Orchis X Heinzeliana, its relation to both parents being shown 

 (Verh. Zool.-Bot. Gesell. Wien, xxvi., p. 464). In 1890 such a plant was 

 discovered in France by M. G. Camus, and described as Gymnadenia X 

 Legrandiana (Bull. Soc. Bot. Fr., xxxvii., p. 217), which the author after- 

 wards changed to Orchi-gymnadenia X Legrandiana, because the parents 

 belong to different genera ( Journ. de Bot., 1892, p. 47S). None of these 

 plants have been figured, nor have I seen specimens, but the one now sent is 

 as thoroughly intermediate. The lip is far broader than in Gymnadenia, 

 and has angular side lobes, as in Orchis maculata, with the front lobe, how- 

 ever, equally well developed. The spur is slender and curved, and about 

 twice as long as the lip, while in shape, texture, and size the flower is inter- 

 mediate between the two. Orchis maculata has a straight spur, about as 

 long as the lip, while in Gymnadenia conopsea the spur is curved, slender, 

 and about four times as long as the lip. The hybrid might presumably 

 occur wherever the two parents grow intermixed. R. A. Rolfe. 



DISA VENOSA. 



Disa venosa, Swartz, is a rare Cape species, which, so far as I know, has 

 not yet appeared in cultivation. Some time ago Mr. J. O'Brien obtained 

 some bulbs from the Cape Peninsula, but the first which has flowered, in 

 the collection of the Hon. Walter Rothschild, at Tring Park, proves to be 

 a light form of D. racemosa, a closely allied species, which, however, as 

 Mr. Bolus remarks, may always be distinguished by its narrower, more 

 angular, cuneate dorsal sepal, and its less rounded lateral sepals. It is 

 also a smaller plant, having leaves from f to ih inches long, and the scapes 

 bear from one to three flowers. D. racemosa is about twice as luxuriant, 

 and has a broadly ovate-orbicular dorsal sepal. Schlechter has recently 

 reduced D. venosa as a variety of D. racemosa, but the two Seem quite con- 

 stant in their differences, which Mr. Bolus confirms by their study in the 

 field. Both are natives of the Cape Peninsula, Mr. Bolus giving the 

 habitat of D. venosa as moist grassy places in the lower plateau of Table 

 Mountain, at 2,400 feet elevation, while D. racemosa grows there at about 

 the same altitude and down to 800 feet below sea level. R. A. Rolfe. 



