September, 1914.] 



THE ORCHID WORLD. 



Another near neighbour of O. Romana is 

 not uncommon on Ischia, the pretty yeUow 

 provmcahs, which seems to prefer growmg 

 high in the mountains to the sea-coast, and 

 the chestnut woods to the bush-land. The 

 chocolate-spotted leaves have a strong 

 resemblance to those of our Early Purple, 

 which does not appear to be found on these 

 isles ; in fact, the whole plant has until the 

 flowers appear yellow in colour, so that it 

 might be mistaken until then. I never was 

 able to find the pink variation, which seems 

 unique to Corsica. 



Of the mono group I only found one single 

 plant under the Olives near Mezza Torre on 

 ischia, which I identified as longicornu, on 

 account of the length of the spur, the 

 colouring, the frail growth and the red 

 anther. 



One of the most beautiful Orchids on this 

 group of islands, which seems fairly common 

 on Capri and one of the capes of Procida but 

 very rare on Ischia, is the red Italica, a near 

 relative of our Monkey. I consider the old 

 name of undulatifolia far more suitable than 

 the present one, on account of the beautiful 

 waving edges of the bright green leaves, 

 which have usually faded before the plants 

 come into blossom, for it is by no means 

 common in Italy, as I have only found it on 

 these islands. The only other Orchis I noted 

 was maculata, which appears to be found 

 everywhere. 



The three Serapias are by no means 

 unfrequent on Ischia, the large heart-shaped 

 cordigera, the tongue-shaped lingua, which 

 varies so much in colouring, and the small- 

 flowered but tall-growing occultata ; the two 

 latter also grow on Procida. 



Without doubt many other varieties of 

 Orchids are to be found on both the islands 

 of Capri and Procida. I have certainly heard 

 of the Lizard on the former, but I did not 

 happen to discover any more; so will conclude 

 these notes with mentioning the other kinds I 

 saw on Ischia, which is a happy hunting 

 ground for the botanist. 



Each of these four is fairly common in the 

 greater part of the Mediterranean region, 

 except perhaps the Butterfly (Platanthera 



chlorantha) which, though fairly frequent 

 above Casamicciola, usually prefers a more 

 northern climate. 



The dainty white Cephalanthera ensifolia 

 may be found from almost the top of Monte 

 Epomeo right down to the sea-splashed cliffs 

 of Pithecusa, the ancient settlement of 

 pre-Hellemc days. 



Limodorum abortivum, tall and stately, 

 purple and leafless, here seems just as happy 

 m the thin chestnut woods as it is amongst 

 the bush-clad rocks. 



The final plant is the little spotty-leaved 

 Neotinea intacta, which is almost as common 

 on this island as is Orchis Romana. It is 

 much more conspicuous when the flowers 

 liave died, for then the stem grows boldly up 

 so that the seed pods have plenty of room for 

 expansion and to ripen their seeds, which 

 they do in vast numbers. — W. Herbert Cox. 



CALANTHES. 



¥ IMi rED as is the number of Calanthes 

 I suitable for horticulture, the genus 

 ' ^ has, nevertheless, an especial interest 

 for horticulturists on account of some 

 beautiful forms included in it that supply an 

 uninterrupted succession of flowers during 

 the winter months, and which have been 

 greatly multiplied during the past few years 

 by means of hybridisation. 



The genus as at present circumscribed 

 includes about forty species that are widely 

 distributed over the tropical and sub-tropical 

 regions of the Eastern hemisphere, and 

 occurring also very sparingly in Me.xico, 

 Central America and the West Indies. The 

 Calanthes are most numerous along the lower 

 Himalayan zone from Assam to Nepal, and 

 again in Java and the neighbouring islands. 

 Northwards they spread into Japan, whose 

 flora includes four or five species, and 

 southwards as far as Sydney in New South 

 Wales, which is the southern limit of C. 

 veratrifolia. The genus is represented in 

 South Africa by the beautiful C. natalensis, 

 in Mauritius by C. sylvatica, in the Society 



