174 



The Canadian Field-Naturalist 



(Vol. XXXVI 



-bulbosa, Listera convallarioides, L. cordala, Coral- 

 lorhiza trifida, and Liparis Loeselii. 



Most of the other known localities in the im- 

 mediate neighborhood of Hatley were visited, but 

 without any great results, until August 5, when the 

 four supposed plants of Menzies' or the Northern 

 Rattlesnake Plantain (Epipactis decipiens), before 

 mentioned, were found to be this species, a fuller 

 account of which, however, appears in the follow- 

 ing annotated list of the three new species dis- 

 covered this season. 



Small Wood Orchis, Habenaria clavellata 

 (Michx.) Spreng. 



This species was first discovered on July 1, 1922, 

 in the large swamp near Beebe. At this date only 

 four examples were noted, and these were not 

 fully grown and were in bud only. Visiting the 

 swamp again on July 29th, I discovered a much 

 larger colony, some distance away from the other 

 one, and now the plants were in full bloom, and 

 it was interesting to note that many of them had 

 emarginate spurs, the same as found by Mr. 

 Edward A. Eames near Damariscotta, Maine, 

 early in August, 1920, a description and plate of 

 which will be found in "Rhodora," Vol. XXIII, 

 1921 ,No. 270, pp. 126-127. 



Ragged Fringed Orchis, Habenaria lacera 

 (Michx.) R. Br. 



This interesting species, with its deeply incised 

 lip, was also met with in the above swamp on 

 July 29th. Unfortunately, it was not discovered 

 until just as I was leaving for home, and only one 

 plant could be located, so that at present I am 

 unable to give any idea of its abundance or other- 

 wise. The plant in question was a fine one, but 

 at this date only the upper part of the raceme was 

 in flower, the lower portion being in fruit. Inci- 

 dentally, I might mention that the exact height of 

 this swamp above sea level is 850 feet, and not 

 about 700 feet, as previously conjectured. 



Menzies' or The Northern Rattlesnake 

 Plantain, Epipactis decipiens., (Hook.) Ames. 



This, the largest of the Rattlesnake Plantains 

 was first definitely identified on August 5, 1922, 

 although on September 3, 1920, I had found four 

 plants in fruit, which I took to belong to this 

 species, as previously recorded. The site was in a 

 somewhat large wood, which, however, I had not 

 visited for some years (although it was within a 

 mile of my house), at least, not at this particular 

 time of the year. There I found quite a number 

 of plants, and, later on, a few more in an adjacent 

 wood. After this discovery, I decided to visit 

 another wood some miles away, where I usually 

 take E. repens var. ophioides and E. tesselata. 

 This wood is a somewhat damp one, mostly 

 covered with sphagnum moss, in striking contrast 



to the ones containing E. decipiens, which were 

 dry, the plants being found mostly on hummocks 

 under hemlocks. At first I could find nothing but 

 tesselata (this was on August 9) which at that date 

 were nearly all in fruit, but, moving away to a 

 drier part of the wood, which I had not previously 

 examined, I came upon a small colony of repens 

 and decipiens, the former in fine condition, and the 

 latter with at least the upper half of the spikes in 

 bloom. I was thus enabled to compare all three 

 species on the ground, and note the general dif- 

 ference in the size and shape of the racemes, 

 flowers and leaves of decipiens, as compared with 

 those of repens and tesselata, irrespective of the 

 technical difference in the lips, etc. 



The first record for this orchid in the State of 

 Vermont was obtained by Miss Inez Addie Howe, 

 who gives a pleasing account of her find of two 

 plants in August, 1917, together with a beautiful 

 illustration of one of them from a photograph by 

 the late Wm. Everard Balch; see "The Vermonter", 

 Vol. XXV, 1920, No. 7, p. 87 and 107. 



It will be noticed that I have adhered to Epipac- 

 tis and Microstylis as the generic names for the 

 Rattlesnake Plantain and Adder's Mouth families 

 respectively. This has been done in order to keep 

 in line with my previous papers, which were based 

 on the nomenclature of Gray's Manual of Botany, 

 seventh edition. At the present time it would 

 doubtless be more up to date to revert to Goodyera 

 for the former, and use Malaxis for the latter. 

 With these changes, and the revision of Pogonia 

 by Prof. Oakes Ames, "Orchidacex" , Ames, Fascicle 

 VII, 1922, pp. 3-38, nomenclatural matters will 

 probably be settled for some time to come. To 

 those interested in luxury-symbiosis or the depen- 

 dence of orchids on a mycorrhizal fungus for their 

 propagation, I would recommend the following 

 most interesting papers by Prof. Oakes Ames, viz.; 

 "Seed Dispersal in Relation to Colony Formation 

 in Goodyera Pubescens" , "The Orchid Review" 

 Vol. XXIX, 1921, pp. 105-7, and "Observations 

 on the Capacity of Orchids to Survive in the 

 Struggle for Existence," "The Orchid Review" 

 August, 1922, pp. 1-6. 



In conclusion I may say that it is my intention 

 to present pressed examples of all the orchids 

 enumerated in my papers to the National Her- 

 barium of Canada, Victoria Memorial Museum, 

 Ottawa. This was partly accomplished in Feb- 

 ruary, 1921. 



