1885.] NOTES ON BRITISH ORCHIDS. 309 



Earer even than the latter species, this plant has but one British 

 station — a little meadow on the north side of Bantry Bay, near 

 Castletown, in the south of Ireland. It is unknown elsewhere in 

 Europe, but extends from the Atlantic to the l*aeific in North 

 America, its range, as given in the RciJort of the Geological Ex'plora- 

 tion of the 4:0th Famllcl, being " Maine and Canada to Lake Superior, 

 the Saskatchewan and Washington Territory ; northward to Una- 

 laska, and southward to California and Colorado. East Humboldt 

 Mountains, 6000 to 8000 feet, July — Sept." This pretty flower 

 is now almost extinct in its Irish station, the place in which it 

 grew having been drained and cultivated by its owner some years 

 ago. Grant Allen mournfully says : " The ardour of modern 

 botanists is fast putting an end to its brief career," and then adds : 

 " This case presents some features of peculiar interest, because the 

 Irish specimens would seem to have been settled in the country for 

 a very long period, sufficient to have set up an incipient tendency 

 toward the evolution of a new species ; for they had so far varied 

 before their first discovery by botanists, that Lindley considered 

 them to be distinct from their American allies ; and even Dr. 

 Bentham originally so classed them, though he now admits the 

 essential identity of both kinds." The questions. Did it ever occupy 

 other European territory, and did it migrate from America, or was 

 the current in the opposite direction ? are well worthy of considera- 

 tion, and have already received attention ; for the latter writer 

 affirms his belief that the seeds were carried across the ocean by 

 chance at some remote period, and Professor Gray will have it that 

 " these are merely the last, or among the last, lingering stations of a 

 species once common to both continents." Apart from its singular 

 geographical distribution, this little plant has much to recommend 

 it, for the white and deliciously fragrant flowers, arranged in a 

 spiral spike, are both effective and interesting. It may be success- 

 fully cultivated ; for Mr. Burbidge, of the Trinity College Botanic 

 Gardens, Dublin, informs me that he grew and flowered it well for 

 some years. Cold, damp bogs, in usually upland situations, are the 

 favourite haunts of this interesting plant, and where, during the 

 months of August and September, its rather inconspicuous though 

 deliciously fragrant flowers (violet-scented) are to be seen. 



In the south of Ireland this rare orchid is best know^n by the 

 name of *S'. Hibernicus, information kindly furnished me by M. E. 

 Gumbleton, Esq. of Belgrove, and to whom I am also indebted for 

 living specimens of the plant, 



{To he continued.) 



X 



