2649
O P H R Y S fucifera.
Dr |one Orchis.
GYNANDJilA Monandria.
Gen. Char. Calyx spreading. Nectary without a
spur, convex.
Spec. Char. Lip longer than the calyx, obovate,
hairy. Petals minutely rough, expanded at the
base. Column with a blunt, short, incurved
point.
Syn. Ophrys fucifera. Sm. Engl. FI. v . 4. 32.
Hook. Brit. FI. 375. Lindt. Syn. Brit. 262.
Smith. PL ofS. Kent, 53. t. 4. 5.
Orchis fucum referens, Burser. Rudb. E ly s .v . 2.
2 0 5 ./. 25. (Lip with a gland at the base.)
W e fear that the plant before us must be considered
for the present an indeterminate species. The principal
character, the roughness of the petals, is not invariably
distinctive; nor is the margin of the lip seldom lobed. A
more or less prominent, but never considerable, gland, is
frequently observable within the sinus at the extremity of
the lip : this gland at least is not recorded as occurring in
O. aranifera, from which our plant materially differs in its
period of flowering. The specimens from which our drawing
is taken were collected at Hartlep, Kent, early in May.
The earliest period observed was about the 20th of April,
1828. The plant may be detected occasionally among
short grass, upon the southern slopes of the chalk downs in
Kent. .
Root-leaves broad, short, and expanded. Height and
number of flowers variable. Central calyx-leaf abrupt or
rounded, equal'to or shorter than the lip. Petals minutely
rough, rarely glabrous, linear or hastate, jagged or