LiMNORCHIS AND PiPERIA NORTH OF MeXICO 007 



is a hidden bud, from which the stem of the following year will 

 spring, the lower portion is often root-like, elongated, sometimes 

 cleft and functions more or less as a root. What this offset should 

 be called I do not know. It has been called both tuber and corm. 

 The latter name is not applicable from the way in which it arises. 

 This would indicate the name tuber, for it is really formed at the 

 end of a short subterranean branch, but it has only one bud and 

 this is directed towards the place from which the offset sprang. 

 The distal end, which in common tubers usually bears most of the 

 buds, is here often root-like. This is especially the case in Liui- 

 norchis, and here the offsets are usually taken for roots. It may 

 be that the larger portion thereof really is a fleshy primary root 

 (if the term primary root can be applied to an offset). The secon- 

 dary roots are developed the next year at its top from the base of 

 the bud. 



The first species of Limnorchis was described as Orchis liyper- 

 borea Linn.* The description was drawn from a specimen from 

 Iceland collected by Konig. About the same time a plant also 

 collected by Konig (and probably the same as the type of 0. Jiy- 

 perborea) was figured in Flora Danica without a binominal name. 

 The description accompanying this is a little faulty because it 

 does not agree with the plate nor with any plant known. This 

 description was copied by Retzius f and he gave it the name 

 Orchis Koenigii. Orchis liyperborca L. is fairly common on Iceland 

 and Greenland but rare on the American continent. Another 

 plant closely related to it but larger and with shorter and more 

 clavate spur has been confounded with it. In preparing the re- 

 vision of Dr. Britton's manual I had not distinguished the two and 

 the description of the spur refers principally to the larger plant. 

 At my visit to the Botanical Garden at Copenhagen last sum- 

 mer, I first saw good material from Greenland and Iceland, and 

 then I noticed the difference between the two plants. The larger 

 plant has been named Platanthcra hyperborca [i major Lange \ and 

 Platantlicra Koenigii Lindl ; § but it is evidently not Orchis 

 Koenigii Retz. 



* Linn. Mant. I2I. 1767. 

 f Fl. Scand. I: 16S. 1779. 

 JConsp. Fl. Groenl. I18. 1880. 

 I Gen. et Sp. Orchid. PI. 286. 1835. 



