112 : Rhodora [JUNE 
fying it properly. Both of these treatments follow closely that of 
Prof. Ames in his “ Synopsis of the Genus Spiranthes North of Mexico,” 
Ames: Orchidaceae, Fasc. i. 124 (1905) where he used a similar state- 
ment in his key: 
“Lip ovate to ovate-oblong, usually equalling the sepals and petals; 
not laciniate at the tip, broadest in front of the callosities, pubescent 
beneath.” 
The amount and position of the pubescence on the lip of this species 
is well represented in an enlarged drawing on a sheet of the type 
number (Lindheimer, no. 191) in the Gray Herbarium; and in Plate 
51, fig. 5, RHopora, vi. 31 (1904). This plate, drawn by Mrs. Ames, 
illustrates this species in an article written by Prof. Ames in which 
he described it as S. neglecta Ames. 
After further study and the inspection of additional material Prof. 
Ames decided ! that his S. neglecta was identical with and would have 
to be placed in the synonymy of S. vernalis Engelmann & Gray. If 
the pubescence on the lower surface of the lip of S. vernalis is to be 
used as a key character to separate it from the more southern S. 
praecox (Walt.) Wats. & Coult., then the small quantity and definite 
localization of this pubescence should be stated. The lips of both 
these species are, when seen with considerable magnification, finely 
papillose, but this would not conceivably be confused with pubescence. 
The callosities of S. praecox are cylindrical, longer, and more divergent 
than those of S. vernalis. 
In the large sloping field on the north side of Farm St., Dover, 
where these plants were growing, S. gracilis (Bigel.) Beck was abun- 
dant and growing intermingled with S. vernalis. There were also some 
plants with the grass-like leaves and the yellowish-white tinge of the 
corolla and the puberulent summit of the culm of S. vernalis; but 
with the more slender habit, the more slender spike with fewer looser 
spirals, and with the smaller corolla of S. gracilis. In these the lip 
is quite intermediate in character. It resembles that of S. gracilis 
in size and in its crisped outer margin. It has a suffusion of yellowish- 
green color down its centre and in the callosities, suggestive of the 
deep green color of the body of the lip of S. gracilis. The lip is nar- 
rower, being oblong (3 mm. in width) while the lip of S. gracilis is 
quadrate (4 mm. in width). 
1 Ames, Oakes: Orchidaceae, Fasc. i. 113-7 (1905) 
