Becku Lindl., 18.5-29.5 em. tall, apparently leafless at 
flowering time. Roots stout, two to three, thick-cylindric 
to slender-ellipsoid, spreading. Stems slender, glabrous, 
provided near the apparently stouter base with numerous 
imbricating scarious tubular mucronate sheaths and on 
the upper portion with distant smaller tubular sheaths. 
Raceme slender, densely or subdensely many-flowered 
with the flowers in a single spiral, 5.7 to about 12 cm. 
long; rachis glabrous. Floral bracts ovate, shortly cau- 
date, scarious, 1-nerved, little shorter than the flowers at 
maturity. Ovary obovoid, glabrous, very shortly pedicel- 
late. Perianth horizontally spreading, campanulate, very 
small,apparently white, translucent. Dorsal sepal elliptic- 
ovate, concave, about 8 mm. long and 2 mm. wide, obtuse 
to subacute, l-nerved. Lateral sepals oblong-lanceolate, 
about 3 mm. long, 1—-1.2 mm. wide, obtuse or subacute 
with inrolled margins at the apex, 1-nerved, shortly de- 
current on the ovary. Petals more or less adherent to the 
dorsal sepal forming a galea, broadly oblong or spatulate- 
oblong, little shorter than the dorsal sepal, about 1 mm. 
wide, slightly incurved and more or less asymmetric, 
rounded above with more or less irregular margins, 1- 
nerved. Lip pandurate-subquadrate, slightly exceeding 
the sepals, broadly truncate and sometimes slightly retuse 
at the apex, shortly unguiculate, about 3.2 mm. long, 
2-83mm. wide across the basal portion, slightly narrower a- 
cross the anterior part; dise with a pair of subglobose calli 
at the base, 5- to 7-nerved, minutely papillose throughout 
the anterior half which is slightly lobulate and undulate 
on the margin. Column dilated above; anther conspicu- 
ous, suborbicular, concave, broadly rounded or subtrun- 
‘ate above. 
Spiranthes affinis appears to have its nearest allies in 
the North American species, S. Becki Lindl. and JS, 
gracilis (Bigel.) Beck. It differs from both, however, in 
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