ORCHIS PR.ETERMISSA 
67 
plants, with rather long narrow leaves, scarcely tapering until near the 
tip. The Tower, however, is very different, being, by far the oftenest, of 
a rich, deep red-purple, quite like that of O. purpurella , with very 
heavy broken lines and blotches in darker purple on the lip, and some¬ 
times on the sepals. The centre-lobe is small and rounded, or wedge- 
shaped, but we have not met with the long-tapered centre-lobes some¬ 
times found in the type. Dr. Druce gives the colour-range as 
“ bright tints of purple, purplish-rose, dark bluish-purple, rarely pale 
rose or white.” The side-lobes are often angled or notched along 
... ° o 
their margin. 
This form is obviously very dissimilar to all ordinary types of 
O. incarnata ; but Dr. Druce has named as O. incarnata var. pul- 
chella (Rep. 13. E. C. 1917, p. 167) a plant with a similar Tower, but 
with the habit otherwise of O. incarnata ; this has been found in 
the New Forest. 
On the relation of O. prcetermissa to O. latifolia not much needs 
to be said. The habit is precisely similar; but O. latifolia is distin¬ 
guished by the spots or rings on the leaves, which are almost always 
present, and by the very distinct lip-pattern of continuous lines. By 
far the greatest number of plants of O. latifolia have paler-tinted 
lips, often nearly white inside the lined pattern, not the soft purples 
or magenta of O. prcetermissa, nearly always more slender spurs, 
and generally a different facies. 
Both forms hybridise freely, crossing almost always with O.Fuchsii 
and O. ericetorum when they grow together. O. prcetermissa x 
O. ericetorum has been named by Dr. Druce X 0. Hallii (Rep. 
B. E. C. 1914, p. 24, and 1917, p. 157). There is no doubt that 
many of the plants called generally O. latifolia are such hybrids, 
though we still think that not all our British plants can be accounted 
for in this way ; there appear to be some latifolia types which, what¬ 
ever their origin, are stable and breed true. Hybrids of the type-form 
of the species have also been reported, resulting from crosses with 
O. incarnata, O. latifolia, Gymnadenia conopsea, and Coeloglossum 
viride X O. maculata. The last two forms are particularly interesting; 
the former was named by Dr. Druce x O. Wintoni (Rep. B. E. C. 
1914, p. 25 ; 1917, p. 157, t. 10) ; the latter does not appear to have 
been named (see Rep. B. E. C. 1913, p. 342; 1914, p. 24; 1917, 
pp. 158, 172, t. 11). 
The distribution of the two forms is being pretty well worked out 
for Great Britain. The type is prevalent in England and Wales, and 
the var. 'pulchella in Scotland. O. prcetermissa is distributed over 
the whole area of England and Wales, wherever the ground is suitable, 
but occurs much more sparsely in Scotland, where it is occasionally 
found, as also in the Shetland Islands. Conversely, the var. pul- 
chella is very plentiful in Scotland; it was for a long time called by 
Dr. Druce “ Northern Incarnata,” before its status had been more 
exactly determined; its occasional occurrence in England and Wales 
has been noted as far south as Surrey and Dorset. As regards Ireland, 
not much information is available. Mr. Praeger says that O.prceter- 
niissa is known to be frequent in the N.E., but apparently absent 
from E. and S.E.; the var. pulchella has also been found in N.E., but 
seems to be scarce. 
