GYNANDRIA— MONANDRIA. Listera. 59 



L. Nidus avis. Hook. Scot. 253. Lond. /.58. 



Epipactis Nidus avis. Sv\ Orch. 66. fi'illd. Sp. PI. v. 4. S7. Comp. 



ed. 4. 144. Forst. Tonbr. 100. 

 E. n. 1290. Hall. Hist. v. 2. 149. t. 37. 2. 

 Ophrys Nidus avis. Linn. Sp. PL 1339. Fl. Br. 931. Engl. Bot. 



v.l.t.AS. Fl.Dan.t. \Sl. Ehrh. Phytoph. 56. Purt.v.2.426. 

 Orchis abortiva fusca. Bauh. Pin. 86. Rudb. Elijs. v.2.2\S.f. 1. 

 Nidus avis. Raii Sj/n. 382. Dalech. Hist. 1073./. Lob. Ic. 195,/. 



Besl. Hort. Eyst. cpstiv. ord. 4. t.A. f.3. 

 Neottia. Dod. Pempt. 553./. 

 Pseudo-leimodoron. Clus. Hist. v. 1. 270./. 

 Satyrium aboitivum, sive Nidus avis. Ger. Em. 228. f. 

 S. nonum. Trag. Hist. 79b. f. 



In shady woods^ especially beech, on a chalky or loamy soil. 



In Kent and Sussex. Ray, Hudson. In niany parts of Scotland, 

 Hooker. I have found it in several places in the north of Eng- 

 land, as well as in Norfolk and Suffolk occasionally ; but most 

 abundantly in the fine beech woods about Hurley, Berks. 



Perennial. May, June. 



Root of innumerable, crowded, tufted, simple, thick, cylindrical, 

 whitish, fleshy knobs, or radicles ; for with their true nature no- 

 body is as yet acquainted, lliey grow imbedded among dead 

 leaves, at the roots of trees ; but I could never, any more than 

 Dr. Hooker, detect a parasitical attachment. The whole herb 

 indeed has the true pallid hue, destitute of green, peculiar to 

 parasitical plants in general, as the late Mr. Dryander long ago 

 observed j and to which remark the generality of Orchidecr in 

 India are no exception, their radicles being mostly nourished by 

 rotten bark, not by the living tree. Ston solitary, erect, simple, 

 angular, hollow, without leaves, but clothed with tubular, lax, 

 membranous, obtuse, alternate slieaths. Cluster cylinclrical, 

 many-flowered, dense, except at the bottom, smooth. Bracteas 

 oblong, small. Fl. ]m\e brown in eveiy part. Cal. and pet. 

 moderately and equally spreading. Li}) concave at the base ; 

 cloven at the extremity into 2 blunt, rounded, widely spreading 

 lobes. Column cylindrical, witliout any hood, yhit/i. at the 

 summit, in front, elliptical, convex, of 2 close, linear, ])arallel 

 cells, depositing the yellow, finely granulated, simple, oblong 

 masses of pollen on the back of the oblong u])j)er lip of the 

 stigma, the under lip of which is short and rounded. Caps, oval, 

 with thick, almost woody, ribs and valves, crowned by tiie per- 

 manent column. Seeds numerous, minute, obovate, with a close 

 tunic, not elongated at either end. 



A recent comparison of this with /.. ovata has satisfied me of the 

 j)roj)riety of Mr. lirown's decision respecting its genus, and that 

 the anther is no more a terminal lid in one than in the other. 

 Neither docs the nectary accord so well with E})ipactis as with 

 Listera. 



