1918] St. John,—Spiranthes in Dover, Massachusetts 111 
SPIRANTHES IN DOVER, MASSACHUSETTS. 
Haroup ST. JOHN. 
SEVERAL times during the last twelve years the writer has collected 
ftom a grassy field forming part of his grandmother’s farm in Dover, 
Massachusetts, specimens of a big grass-leaved Spiranthes. It proves 
to be S. vernalis Engelm. & Gray. By the margin of a few miles this 
is a new most northern station for the plant. The nearest record being 
that from Randolph: sandy roadside, Canton Road, Sept. 5, 1898, 
J. R. Churchill. 
From the first the writer had difficulty in identifying these speci- 
mens, because the lip did not really seem to be “ pubescent beneath.” 
In those earlier years his instinctive reverence for the exact truth of 
all words appearing in a book, especially a botany, made the finder 
realize that either his eyes or the plants themselves were at fault and 
made him force himself to see the lip as “ pubescent beneath.” When 
last summer this plant was again collected, the discrepancy was still 
apparent, and this time he was in a position to consult original sources, 
other collections, and to review all the evidence. 
Because of his own difficulties when studying this species and in 
the hope of helping other botanists, the writer makes a few comments 
on its description in the current manuals. In Prof. Ames’s treatment 
in Gray’s Manual, ed. 7, 313 (1907) the key-character leading to this 
species is, 
“++ Lip ovate to ovate-oblong, pubescent beneath.” 
The lip of this species is from ovate to ovate-oblong in shape, but 
_ it cannot be accurately described as “ pubescent beneath.” Between 
the two nipples on the upper side of the lip is a long white villosity. 
This grades off into a fine puberulence which in the immediate neigh- 
borhood of the callosities covers the upper surface of the lip, the mar- 
gins and to a slight extent runs over on to the lower surface immedi- 
ately beneath the callosities. 
The leading phrase in the key in Britton & Brown’s Illustrated 
Flora, i. 564 (1913) is equally inapplicable. 
“Lip pubescent without, of an ovate type, the base dilated.” 
On the same score this also fails to describe the real condition, and 
one having the actual plant before him would have difficulty in identi- 
