1903] Ames, — Hybrids in Spiranthes and Habenaria 263 
obscure; rhachis 6-16 cm. long; floral bracts ovate-lanceolate, 
abruptly acuminate, longer than the ovaries, with a faint hyaline 
margin; flowers 6-7 mm. long, in a spiral or one-sided spicate 
raceme ; lateral sepals deflexed, lanceolate, margins involute, upper 
sepal oblong, obtuse, all the sepals sparsely pubescent; petals 
oblong, obtuse, tapering slightly to the base, equalling in length the 
upper sepal, and connivent with it; lip oblong, somewhat flaring at 
the strongly deflexed apex, green, or yellowish toward the proximal 
end, with a broad, whitish, erose margin; callosities green with a 
whitish or yellowish apex, partially pubescent. In dry upland fields, 
Easton, Bristol County, Massachusetts, Sept. 3, 8, 10, 1903. (A. 
A. Eaton). 
Spiranthes X intermedia is a non-Mendelian hybrid. It is inter- 
mediate throughout, the characters of both parents being merged in 
all the important vegetative and floral parts. The capsules produce 
good seeds with plump embryos, and there is no reason to infer that 
the pollen has been impaired in efficacy through the influences of 
hybridization. The probabilities are, if horticultural experience 
with orchids is to count, that S. x intermedia can reproduce itself 
from seeds provided pollination and subsequent fertilization are 
effected by kindred pollen; and that the plants will act as species 
in their development. In fact, if seeds should germinate in a local- 
ity far enough removed from the parent species to make future 
pollination from them an exception rather than the rule, it would be 
rational to suppose that the hybrids would develop rapidly into a 
localized species. The plants increase by means of offshoots, and 
even when mingled with S. praecox and S. gracilis would survive 
long enough to ensure, through the laws of chance, an occasional 
successful cross with another hybrid, — a process which would tend 
to increase their number and so render more likely their perpetuation 
by seed. 
The scattered occurrence of the hybrids forms the basis for the 
belief that more than one cross has been effected in the region 
of Easton. Furthermore, it is interesting to note that secondary 
hybrids may be represented by several ambiguous forms of S. 
praecox concerning which it has been thought best to withhold an 
opinion at this time. 
In RuopoRA (i. 245) Mr. A. LeRoy Andrews described an 
odd form of Habenaria as a natural hybrid from Æ. psycodes and 
H. lacera. His specimens were collected in a wet meadow in 
Pownal, Vermont, on July 22, 1898, and on August 5, 19or. Mr. 
