28o 



THE ORCHID WORLD. 



[Septembt-r, 1914. 



ORCHIDS OF THE NEAPOLITAN 

 ISLANDS. 



ISLAND floras have a peculiar interest of 

 their own quite distinct from those of the 

 mainland, for as a general rule on islands 

 there are many forms of plants to be found 

 which are not seen on the neighbouring 

 mainland, though it may be very near. In 

 the far-famed Bay of Naples there are three 

 islands, Capri, Ischia and Procida, with which 

 it IS now my intention to deal and which, for 

 want of a more suitable name, I call "the 

 Neapolitan Islands." Though, so far as I am 

 aware, these islands have no forms of Orchids 

 peculiar to themselves or no hybrids at all, 

 they have a goodly number of varieties and 

 enormous numbers of specimens. Of the 

 three islands themselves, Ischia is the largest 

 and most beautiful, though Capri is far better 

 known to the globe-trotter, while Procida is 

 quite small and never receives foreigners. 

 Ischia and Procida may be grouped together, 

 as m former times there appears no doubt 

 that they, with Vivara, were one and the same 

 island. They are of volcanic origin and are 

 composed of basalt and trachyte, with pumice 

 stone and tufa. On the other hand Capri is 

 entirely limestone. To the most ignorant 

 botanist this fact alone would show that the 

 variety m plants found on these different 

 formations would m consequence vary 

 considerably on this account. It certainly 

 does in most orders, but as a whole the Orchid 

 flora is much the same on all the isles. 



The most uncommon of the Orchids is the 

 sub-species exaltata of Ophrys aranifera, 

 which, apart from Capri, has only been found 

 elsewhere on Sicily, never on the mainland. 

 Though the growth generally resembles the 

 ordinary form of the Spider, which grows in 

 goodly numbers on both Capri and Ischia, the 

 flower is more like arachnites, which I did 

 not see here at all. The colour of the 

 perianth is usually pink, and in the cut of the 

 hp IS a small three-pointed appendix. Though 

 a rare plant, I found a great number of 

 specimens on one limited area. Specularia, 

 a variety of aranifera which I only found on 

 Ischia, where it is fairly common, is also 



generally rose-coloured, but the hp is less 

 circular in shape at the base and the diminu- 

 tive appendix has only one point, whilst the 

 inner petals of the perianth are longer and 

 narrower. The most beautiful of all the 

 Ophrys family — O. tenthredmifera — grows 

 on Capri above the marvellous Blue Grotto. 

 The individual flowers are larger than m 

 any of the other kinds and the petals much 

 more rounded. The colour, however, is dis- 

 appointing as the shade is rather a dirty pink 

 instead of a clear rose, whilst the yellow of 

 the lip is scarcely vivid enough. The only 

 other Ophrys I saw on these islands was the 

 Bee, which is common on Ischia. 



The earliest of all the Orchids to appear is 

 Orchis Romana, which was in blossom by the 

 twentieth of February, though Camus states 

 that its flowering season is from May to July. 

 This plant is extremely common on Ischia, 

 growing wherever it can from the mountain 

 tops right into the towns, though not a sign 

 of it was visible on either of the other islands. 

 Like its two near neighbours, Sambucina and 

 insularis, the flowers are sometimes yellow, 

 sometimes purple, but show much more 

 variety in the shades of colouring, and 

 blossoms with yellow upper petals and purple 

 hps are frequently to be seen, which I have 

 never noted with the others. The growth of 

 the plant in general is much more stocky than 

 insularis, which grows tall and graceful. The 

 lip is tri-lobed, the external lobes being large 

 and rounded, whilst the central one is some- 

 times whole, sometimes toothed, and rather 

 longer than the side ones. In Mademoiselle 

 Camus' illustration, in her father's great book, 

 she has drawn the plant with a toothed bulb ; 

 but I think that she was wrong as all the roots 

 I examined were round, only toothed quite at 

 the base. 



Just as O. Romana is the commonest 

 Orchid on Ischia, the beautiful Butterfly (O. 

 papilionacea) is the commonest of them on 

 Capri, but unlike the other it is common too 

 on Ischia. The charming flowers with their 

 bright pink lips and deep maroon petals 

 appear early, and I noted it before the middle 

 of March near the Villa of Tiberius and a few 

 days later all over the island of Capri. 



