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OPHRYS ovata.
Common Twayblade.
GYNANDRIA Diandria.
G e n . Char. Nectary consisting o f a lip only, slightly
carinated at the back.
Spec. Char. Root o f clustered fleshy fibres. A pair
o f elliptical leaves on the stem. Nectary linear,
two-lobed.
Syn. Ophrys ovata. Linn. Sp. PI. 1340. Sm. Fl.
Brit. 932. Buds. 388. With. 34. Hull. 196.
Relh. 3 4 1. Sibth. 12. Atbbot. 195. Curt. Lond.
fasc. 3. t. 60.,
Epipactis ovata. Swartz. Hcl. Holm. arm. 1800. 232.
Bifolium majus, seu Ophris major quibusdam. Raii
Syn. 385.
I n groves and pastures not unfrequent, flowering in June.
Our specimen, gathered on the bushy hills above Matlock
Bath, is rather smaller than the usual size of the plant in
more moist situations.
The root is perennial, consisting of numerous simple
fibres. Whole plant of a greenish cast. Stem a foot or
18 inches high, bearing about its middle a pair (rarely more)
of sheathing, elliptical, ribbed, smooth leaves. Below these
leaves the stem is angular and smooth, above them round and
downy, terminating in a long, dense, upright spike of numerous
green flowers, each on a partial stalk, with an acute
bractea. Petals with a red or brown tinge, all concave, and
directed rather upward. Lip long, pendent, yellowish green,
linear, concave at the base, with a rib on the upper side, and
ending in 2 rather spreading equal lobes. Column 2-lipped,
the upper lip bearing the antherse, which are brown, parallel,
often falling out (as in our magnified figure), discharging two
masses of yellow pollen which stick to the lower lip of the
column, under which, on its other side, is the stigma. Very
often these masses of pollen are scattered over other parts of
the plant, as J)r. Scott and others have noticed in Orchis
lifolia.