16 Rhodora 



[January 



When A. W. Chapman prepared the third edition of Ids Flora of the 

 Southern United States he described a new variety of Spiranthes 

 cermia, Rich., and named it var. porvifforn. The type was collected 

 in rich oak woods near Rome, Georgia. T>ater, Dr. Small, as shown 

 by his Flora of the Southeastern United States, recognized that (Miap- 

 man had strained aflinitics in making the (Georgian plant a variety of 

 S. cernua, and he, therefore, raised it to specific rank under Gyro- 

 stachys. In my treatise on the American Species of Spiranthes, 

 published in Fascicle I of Orchidaccae, I j)lacetl this species, doubt- 

 fully, next to S. Roiminzoffiana on account of the constriction of the 

 lip in several specimens examined. Last November at Kew a com- 

 parison of Spiranthes parviflora with Spiranthes ovali.s lAnd]. ])roved 

 that they were conspecific. The type comprises three individuals 

 preserved in the Hookerian Herbarium. 



Spiranthes ovalis is of special interest as it is not confined to the 

 states of the extrem(> south and as the northern limits of its distribu- 

 tion bring it within the area covered by (Cray's Manual. According 

 to studies of the material in the principal herbaria of America and 

 England it is most common in Missouri, where George Engelmaim 

 collected specimens as early as 1835, and where as recently as Sej)- 

 tember, HK)"), it was found by B. F. Bush (no. 3322). How such a 

 distinct s])ecics has been omitted from our nuinuals devoted to the 

 botany of the northern United States is difficult to cxj)lain. It is very 

 similar in aspect to Spiranthes latijoUa, Torr., and might easilv be 

 mistaken for it, but S. latijolia is a summer bloomer, while S. oralis 

 does not bloom until the fall of the year, even in the southern states, 

 a fact which should have led to careful investigations. Furthenn()r(\ 

 the flowers of the two species are quite different, and the scape of S. 

 ovalis is much taller in relation to the leaves than the scape of S. 

 latijolia. 



Spikant£[es ovalis Lindley, Orch. PI. 466 (1840).— S. eernua, 

 var. parviflora, Chapm., Fl. S. IT. S. ed. 3, 488 (1897).— Gip-osfarhi/l 

 parviflora, Small, Fl. Se. U. S. 318 (1903).— Spiranthes parvijlora, 

 Ames, Orchidaceae, Fasc. 1, 137 (1905). Lip ovate, 4 5 nun. long, 

 sometimes constricted above the middle, few nerved, membranaceous; 

 nipples slender, elongated, strongly curved. Distribution: Georgia, 

 westward to Indian Territory; Tennessee and northward to Missouri 

 and Illinois. In shady moist woods and on high wooded hills, Septem- 

 ber and October. 



North Eastox, Massachu.sett.s. 



