Tas. 7690. 
EPIPACTIS gicanrga. 
Native of Western N. America and Temperate Asia. 
Nat. Ord. OxcHipEz.—Tribe NEOTTIER. 
Genus Epiractis, Haller; (Benth. & Hook. f. Gen. Plant. vol. iii. p. 619.) 
Eripactis gigantea ; caule elato robusto folioso, foliis inferioribus ovatis oblong- 
isve superioribus 4-8 pollicaribus sensim in bracteas abeuntibus lanceo- 
latis acuminatis acutisye glaberrimis v. nervis subtus subscaberulis, 
racemo glabro v. puberulo, bracteis foliaceis inferioribus 3-4 poll. longis 
lanceolatis acuminatis, floribus remotis breviter graciliterque pedicellatis, 
sepalis ? poll. longis viridibus rubro striatis, dorsali late ovato erecto 
subgaleato,'lateralibus ovato-lanceolatis subacutis, petalis sepalis breviori- 
bus oblique ovatis obtusis pallide roseis rubro-striatis, labello roseo 
sepalis zequilongo, hypochilio saccato lobis lateralibus erectis late ovatis 
apice rotundatis, epichilio ovato v. ovato-lanceolato subacuto rubro, 
capsula patula v. pendula brevi et ellipsoidea, v. longiore lineari-oblonga. 
E. gigantea, Dougl. ex Hook. Fl. Bor. Am. vol. ii. p. 220, +. 202. S. Wats. 
Bot. King’s Exped. p. 341; Bot. Calif. vol. ii. p. 137. Coulter, Man. Rocky 
Mt. Flor. p. 348. Hemsl. Biol. Cent. Amer. Bot. vol. iii. p. 304. Lindl. 
in Benth. Pl. Hartweg. p. 53. 
E. americana, Lindl. in Ann. Sc. Nat. vol. iv. (1840) p. 385; Gen. &. Sp. 
Orchid, p. 462. 
E. Royleana, Lindl. in Royle, Til. Bot. Himal. p. 368; Gen. & Sp. Orchid. 
p. 461; in Journ. Linn. Soe. vol. i. (1857) p. 174. Hook. f. Fl. Brit. Ind. 
vol. vi. p. 126. 
PE. Thunbergii, A. Gray, in Perry Exped. Japan. vol. ii. p. 319. 
CrPHaALANTHERA Royleana, Regel in Act. Hort. Petrop. vol. vi. (1879) p. 490. 
Boiss. Fl. Orient. vol. v. p. 63. 
The species of Hpipactis have never been satisfactorily 
discriminated or described. They are extremely variable, 
both in foliage and floral characters ; as many as seventeen 
forms, varieties, or species having been referred to the 
European H. latifolia, All. One alone, H. gigantea, is 
known as a native of N. America, and it is there confined 
to the western half of the continent, ranging from British 
Columbia to California and Mexico, and further east from 
Idaho to Texas. It reappears in the Old World in the 
Corea (and Japan, if A. Gray’s L. Thunbergit is conspecific), 
and Manchuria, and thence extends to the mountains of 
Western China, and along the Himalaya at elevations of 
seven thousand to twelve thousand feet to Kashmir. It is 
quite hardy at the Royal Gardens, Kew, flowering in June. 
DeEcEMBER Ist, 1899. 
