CORALLORRHIZA STRIATA Lindley, 
A MIXTURE 
BY 
Louis O. WiLLIAMS 
IN STUDYING THE ORIGINAL DESCRIPTION of Corallor- 
rhiza striata Lindley (Gen. & Sp. Orch. Pl. (1840) 584), 
it was found to disagree with the interpretation generally 
given the species by American authors. C. striata was 
described as having a trilobulate lip, a character which is 
unknown in C.striata as commonly understood. 
Lindley’s type specimen is a mixture of C.striata, as 
that species is usually interpreted, with another species 
of Corallorrhiza, very probably C.maculata Raf. Fortu- 
nately there is a good photograph of the type specimen 
in the Ames Herbarium. This photograph of the Lindley 
type shows parts of three plants collected by Douglas in 
‘*N.W. America’ and a sketch (by Lindley) of a flower 
and lip. Only the left hand inflorescence is referable to 
C. striata in its present accepted sense, and is the only ma- 
terial having striate flowers. Consequently this material 
should be accepted as the true type of Lindley’s C.stri- 
ata,in spite of the discrepancies written into the original 
description. 
A probable duplicate of the Douglas collection, on 
which Lindley’s species is based, is to be found in the 
Gray Herbarium: it is C.striata of traditional usage. 
If we consider the technical characters of Lindley’s 
description, the sketch of the flower which he made and 
the fact that most of the material upon which he based 
the species is probably C. maculata, one might feel justi- 
fied in reducing it to synonymy under C. maculata. There 
are, however, several considerations which argue for the 
retention of the name C.striata in the traditional usage: 
1. The name striata must have been taken from that 
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