ORCHIDACEJB. (ORCHIS FAMILY.) 475 
the petals; all usually erect. Lip oblong, concave and embracing 
the column below, furnished with 2 callosities next the base, con¬ 
tracted into a short claw below them or sessile, the spreading apex 
more or less dilated. Column arching, obliquely short-stalked, 
the ovate stigma usually with a short-pointed and at length 2-cleft 
beak. Anther dorsal: pollen-masses 2, club-shaped, affixed to a 
common gland, powdery (the minute grains scarcely held together 
by the cobwebby threads). —Roots clustered-tuberous. Stems 
naked or leafy below. Flowers small, white, bent horizontal, in a 
close usually spirally twisted spike (whence the name, from 
(nrelpa, a coil or curl , and Mos, blossom ). 
* Scape naked, barely bracted below : leaves all next the ground, early 
disappearing: flowers all one-sided. 
1. S. gracilis, Bigelow. Scape very slender (8'-15' high), 
smooth; spike slender, so twisted as to throw the flowers as they ex¬ 
pand all into a single (straight or usually spiral) row; bracts ovate, 
pointed, not longer than the pods, to which they are closely appress- 
ed; bp spatulate-oblong, strongly wavy-crisped at the rounded sum¬ 
mit (not lobed), the callosities at the base conspicuous, incurved; 
leaves varying from ovate to oblong-lanceolate, petioled. (Also s! 
Beckii, Lindl., as to the Northern plant) — Hilly woods and sandy 
plains. July, Aug. —Leaves l'-2' long, thin. Perianth and lip 
5 - J long, of a delicate pearly texture : the colli at first oval, beard¬ 
ed at the base inside, at length elongating and incurved. — If there 
are other species allied to this in the Northern States, I have not met 
with them. 
* * Scape or stem leafy towards the base : flowers not unilateral. 
2. S. latifolia, Torr. in Lindl. Low (4'- 9' high); leaves ob¬ 
long-lanceolate, narrowed into a sheathing base ; spike oblong, rather 
dense, more or less twisted ; bracts lanceolate, acutish, the lower as 
long as the flowers ; lip oblong, very obtuse, wavy-crisped at the 
apex, o — 7-nerved below, and with 2 oblong adnate callosities at the 
base. (S. plantaginea, Torr. in JV. Y. FI., not of Lindl. S. aestivalis, 
Oakes,. Cat.) —Moist banks, N. New York and New England, not 
rare. June. — Leaves chiefly towards the base of the stem, 2'-4' 
long and about £' wide, thickish ; above are one or two small leaf- 
like bracts. Flowers white with the lip yellowish, larger than in 
°* muc h smaller than in No. 2; the sepals minutely glandular- 
pubescent, as well as the axis of the spike. — I find nothing to distin- 
guis it from S. aestivalis except that the flowers are a trifle smaller, 
and the bracts less acute. 
3. S. Cernua, Richard. Root-leaves linear-lanceolate, elongat- 
