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HABENARIA VIRIDIS var. BRACTEATA. 

 By James Britten, F.L.S. 



In the Botanical Exchange Chih Report for 1896 (issued 31 Aug. 

 1898) Mr. Druce has a note headed " Hahenaria viridis R. Br. in 

 Aiton, Hort. Kew. ed. 2. v. 192, var. hacteata mihi." This name 

 he gives to "the more frequent form in mountainous districts of 

 Scotland " — a form to which he had previously referred in his 

 Berkshire Flora as having "frequently the bracts longer than the 

 flowers." He gives no description, so that the name is entitled to 

 no consideration, and might be tacitly ignored, were it not that it 

 had been previously employed by other authors. There is nothing 

 in Mr. Druce's note to lead to the conclusion that he had the 

 earlier var. bracteata in view : he cites none of the synonymy 

 belonging to that variety, and his plant seems to stand on the 

 same footing as his "var. bracteata " of Scilla festal is, of which the 

 sole character is that " the bracts are often so much developed as 

 to considerably exceed the flowers." 



Everyone knows that the length of the bracts in Rabenaria 

 viridis is extremely variable; thus Parlatore (Fl. Ital. iii. 409) 

 writes : " Questa specie varia molto per la lunghezza delle brattee 

 che ora sono soltanto piu lunghe dell' ovario, ora due o tre volte 

 piu lunghe dell' ovario e del fiore : pero si trovano tutte le forme 

 intermedie," and it seems undesirable to base a variety on a 

 character of so little importance. But the name has, as I have 

 said, already been employed for a plant which many recent 

 botanists regard as a distinct species— the Orchis bracteata of Will- 

 denow {Habenaria bracteata R. Br.) to which the name H. viridis 

 var. bracteata is applied as a synonym by Morong in the American 

 Check-list. It is true that both here and in Dr. Britton's Illustrated 

 Flora (iii. 463) this name is inaccurately cited from " Reich. Ic. Fl. 

 Germ. xiii. 130," where it appears as Flatanthera viridis var. 

 bracteata ; and it may be added that Parlatore (/. c.) considered that 

 Reichenbach had confused a form of H. viridis with long bracts 

 with the plant of Willdenow, Brown, and Lindley. But the last- 

 named (Gen. Sp. Orchid. PI. 299) doubts whether the plant of the 

 two former authors is really distinct from P. viridis; " at least," 

 he says, "I can find no mark of distinction beyond the length of the 

 bracts." I have seen no British specimens agreeing withReichen- 

 bach's figure, but it agrees sufficiently well with North American 

 specimens of H. bracteata and with the figure in Dr. Britton's 

 Flora ; and Richter (PI. Europ. i. 279) places it with the rest under 

 his Cceloglossum viride /S bracteatum.-'' 



It may be worth while for British botanists to look into the 

 matter, and ascertain whether we have any plant corresponding 

 with Reichenbach's, or with H. bracteata Br., should these two 



* He also places here Orchis viridis /3 Vaillantil Ten. Syll. 629 (1831), but I 

 think incorrectly. 



