104 | | Rhodora [May 
out doubt, of any known species of Corallorrhiza which has a spotted 
lip. After reading the second note, however, it becomes clear that if 
the C. maculata therein described is the same species as the one re- 
ferred to in the first note, there is sufficient evidence for a scrutinizing 
study of the situation. The second note, in fact, offers the only satis- 
factory clue that is at all reliable, by which we may hope to obtain 
knowledge of the species which Rafinesque had in hand. It would 
be purely gratuitous to assume that the plant of the first note pub- 
lished by Rafinesque was a distinct species from that of the second 
note. It is not likely that Rafinesque's extraordinary powers of dis- 
cernment would have let him confuse two such distinct species as the 
C. multiflora of the sixth edition of the Manual and C. Wisteriana. 
After eliminating Corallorrhiza striata, which, from its range and 
striated flowers, is negligible in the present discussion, let us, for the 
sake of convenience separate the species of Corallorrhiza of the eastern 
United States into two sections, one characterized by an entire, the 
other by a three-lobed lip. In the first section we find C. odontorhiza 
and C. Wisteriana, and in the second C. trifida and C. multiflora. If 
we now turn to Rafinesque's description of C. maculata we find the 
lip clearly described in the second note as being “recurved elliptic 
white red spotted, auriculated on each side of the base, toothed and 
obtuse at the apex.” A flower with an "auriculated" lip surely does 
not suggest either of the species in the first section of our arbitrary 
division. And if we attempt to identify it with the species of the 
second section we find that it is not in agreement with C. trifida, and is, 
therefore, either a distinct species or conspecifie with C. multiflora. 
If all the evidence is examined it will be found that Rafinesque in his 
second note, and Conrad in the original diagnosis of C. Wisteriana 
gave details relative to the flowering season and distributions of their 
plants which are worthy of careful consideration by one who wishes 
to ascertain the identity of C. maculata and C. Wisteriana. Conrad 
says of his plant that it “flowers the beginning of the 5th month”? 
(May). Rafinesque, on the other hand, had to do with a species which 
blooms in July and August, in the “shady woods of Long Island, near 
Flatbush, Flushing, Oyster-bay, ete." An examination of numerous 
specimens of C. Wisteriana has conclusively proved to my mind that 
it is a vernal species, which has a flowering season from February 
into May, and that it is, for the most part, a southern species, which is 
fairly common in several of the states of the far south reaching into 
