O P H R Y S aranifera.
Spider Orchis.
G T N A N D R I A Diandria.
G en. Char. Nediary confifting of a lip only, flightly
carinated at the back.
Spec. Char. Bulbs roundifh. Stem leafy. Liproundifh,
convex, hairy above, in three divifions, turned in
at the margin, and notched at the tip.
Syn. Ophrys aranifera. Hudf. FI. An. 39a. iFith.
Bot. Arr. 994. Relh. Cant. 340.
Orchis five Tefticulus fphegodes hirfuto flore. Ran
Syn. 380.
T h i s , with us the moft uncommon of the infe£t-bearing
Orchifes, was gathered near Bury by Sir T. G. Cullum, Bart,
as well as. by W. Matthew, Efq. and we are obliged to
both thefe gentlemen for fine fpecimens of it, flowering in
April. Mr. Jacob Rayer, of Bolt-court, Fleet-ftreet, to whom
we have likewife been indebted for a fpecimen of Lathrsea
Squamaria found near London, brought us the Spider Ophrys
from Kent. It is alfo found in Cambridgefhire, always on a
chalky foil, and varying much as to the number of flowers.
This more nearly approaches the Bee Orchis than the Fly,
but effentially differs from it in having the great middle lobe
of the neftary Amply notched, and not ending, in three recurved
points; befides its flowering two or three months earlier,
and having the column of the fruflification thicker,
Ihorter, and of a different figure, when accurately compared
with the other fpecies. The Ophrys arachnites of Linnams
appears, from his herbarium, to be a different plant from ours,
having a lip more like that of the apifera.