82 THE .TOUENAL OF BOTANT 



guishing characteristics of .SJ. viridijiora. As Mr. Burton found no 

 other kinds of Epipactis at Boniere, and as Babington originally 

 identified his Bomere plants as viridiflora, these facts may be re- 

 garded as fairly conclusive proof that his original identification was 

 correct. This is confirmed by Babington's description, which, as far 

 as it goes, exactly fits E. viridiflora var. leptophylla (Journ. Bot. 

 1919, p. 39), with the exception of the words " flowers green tinged 

 with purj^le." This is a very minor point ; Mr. Stephenson mentions 

 that in his forma vectensis (Journ. Bot. 1918, p. 1) they are some- 

 times so tinged, and they frequently are so on the Continent. 



The drawing of E. media in E. B. S. 2775, was made from a 

 specimen of E. pnrpurata (E. violacea) (E. B. ed. ix. 124) from 

 Woburn Abbey, Bedford. We have therefore this anomalous posi- 

 tion — a plant identified as E. viridiflora Bchb. b}^ Babington was 

 published by him as E. media Fries, and illustrated in E. B. by a 

 drawing of E. violacea ! When the third edition of E. Bot. was 

 published, the plates from the Supplement were embodied therein ; 

 the reproduction of No. 2775, however, as I noticed at Kew, instead 

 of adhering to the subdued colours of the original, was printed 

 with bright reds and yellow^s, and is thus very far removed in appear- 

 ance from E. violacea (which it originally represented) and suggests 

 a much over-coloured E. latifolia. Perhaps it was partly due to this 

 that the idea arose that Babington's E. media was a plant nearly 

 resembling latifolia, but differing from it by longer and narrower 

 leaves, and rugose, instead of smooth bosses on the lip. 



So we find it appearing in the 14th ed. of Hayward's Botanists^ 

 PocJtet-hook, as HeUehorine latifolia c. media Druce. The same 

 work recognises E. violacea as a separate species under the title 

 11. purpurata Diiice, so that it appears to have been overlooked that 

 the E. B. S. plate of E. media was diuwn from a specimen of 

 E. purpurata. 



In 1917 Mr. Druce, at my request, very kindly sent me two or 

 three specimens of media. I was unable to detect any difference 

 between them and E. latifolia, the ostensible one being that the 

 bosses of the lip were rugose in media and smooth in latifolia. In 

 his letter accompanying the specimens, Mr. Druce said : I think, 

 however, the plicate-rugose bosses are not sufficiently distinctive 

 characters to be of specific value." With this I entirely agree. 



In a wood near Eashing, Surrey, where only E. latifolia grows, 

 rugose hunches were more common than smooth ones. The difference 

 is a slight one — in the one the epidermis is ^\Tinkled, in the other it is 

 sufficiently expanded to smooth out the wrinkles. It is curious to 

 note how, in course of time, the name E. media, given by Babington 

 to E. viridiflora, has become transferred to ordinary E. latifolia 

 with rugose hunches. Fries in his Mantissa says of his E. media : 

 "carina plicato-crenata, quo certissime differt a E. latifolia in qua 

 .... carina non plicato crenata." Probably it was from this that the 

 idea arose that Babington's media was separable from latifolia by its 

 rugose hunches, and this was strengthened by the E. B. S. plate 2775, 

 as pointed out above. 



To sum up, the plant which Babington described as E. media 



