2 8 Rhodora [Fkbriary 



Deane has compared plants from Easton, Massachusetts, with phmts 

 from Milford, Connecticut, in his herbarium, and has pronounced 

 them specifically similar, and unlike S. praccox, Watson, collected in 

 New Jersey. 



Among the Orchidaceae published in RitODORA in the " Lists of 

 New England Plants," Mr. Emile F. Williams reports S. praecox, 

 Watson, as having been found in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and 

 Connecticut. As 1 have seen no true S. praccox from these states, 

 and as they are north of the northern limits of this species, the plants 

 Mr. Williams refers to may be S. negleda. It is also reported from 

 Middlesex County, Massachusetts, by Mr. Ernest C. Smith (Rho- 

 dora, i. 97), as S. graminea, var. Waltcri, (iray. According to tlie 

 " Portland Catalogue," S. praecox is ascribed to Maine. Its absence, 

 however, from the Maine Spiranthes in the New England Botanical 

 Club Herbarium is remarkable,'especially so, as the representation 

 of the genus from this state is unusually rich and comprehensive. 

 There is, however, in this herbarium a specimen of 6'. cernua. col- 

 lected by J. C. Parlin in wet places at Hartford, Maine, Sept., 1885, 

 which bears on the label the name S. graminea, var. Walteri. In the 

 preparation of his List of New England Orchids, Mr. Williams was 

 unable to authenticate the report of the "Portland Catalogue" 

 regarding S. praecox, so that it seems advisable to omit this species 

 at present from the Maine flora. 



During August, 1903, Mr. Robert G. Leavitt, in company with Mr. 

 H. D. Sleeper, found many plants of this neglected species at Black 

 Point, Crescent Beach, Connecticut, where it grew in dry fields not 

 far from the seashore. In early September, Mr. Sleeper obtained 

 additional material from the same locality, and later, in the same 

 month, Mr. A. A. Eaton, while collecting near North Easton, Mass- 

 achusetts, came upon several stations where it was associated with 

 S. gracilis and S. cernua, var. ochrolenca, hybridizing with the former. 



In Rhodora (v. 261) I described the hybrid and for comparison 

 showed drawings of the lips of the parents. The lip of what is 

 there called S. praecox, Watson, as shown in the illustration is decid- 

 edly ovate in outline, and therefore very different from the oblong 

 lip of the true S. praecox. In the dried state Spiranthes negkcta may 

 usually be distinguished from .5. praecox by the color and texture of 

 the flowers, these being of a deeper brown. The lip, as a rule, is 

 more opaque, and thicker, with the nerves showing less distinctly 



