( 153 ) 
is the fpecies apifera, bee-bearing. The dif- 
tinguiming character of ophrys is the nec~lary 
hanging down longer than the petals, and be- 
ing flightly keeled behind only. That fpecies,, 
commonly called the tway-blade, is the egged 
ophrys. By comparing thefe flowers with the 
plates of Mr. Curtis's London Flora * they will 
be found moft accurately given; and the 
great difference in the ftrudture of the orchis 
and ophrys genera will be well feen. Thefe 
genera are alfo greatly elucidated by the ob- 
fervations of Dr. Smith in his Englifli Botany. 
Linneus has formed the fpecific characters of 
feveral of thefe flowers from peculiar circum- 
ftances found in the nedlary ; that of the 
tway-blade, or ophrys ovata, is marked by 
it's nectary being two-cleft. The leaves of 
thefe two fpecies of ophrys differ materially 
from thofe of the orchis tribe. The root of 
the ophrys apifera refembles thofe of the 
orchis genus, which are bulbous, but that of 
the ovata is fibrous. Linneus, in the generic 
characters of the four families of orchis, fa- 
ty'rium, ophrys, and ferapias, which are all 
* For the convenience of thofe, who may not have agcefs 
to that valuable publication, a piate of the orchis and ophrys 
is given at the end of this Lecture. 
clofely 
