47° ORCHIDACEAE. 
7- GYROSTACHYS Pers. Syn. 2: 511. 1807. 
[SprRANTHES L, C. Richard, Mem. Mus. Paris, 4:42. 1818.] 
Erect herbs, with fleshy-fibrous or tuberous roots and slender stems or scapes, leaf-bear- 
ing below or at the base. Flowers small, spurless, spiked, 1-3-rowed, the spikes more or less 
twisted. Sepals free, or more or less coherent at the top, or united with petals into a 
galea. Lip sessile or clawed, concave, erect, embracing the column and often adherent to 
it, spreading and crisped, or rarely lobed or toothed at the apex, bearing minute callosities at 
the base. Column arched below, obliquely attached to the top of the ovary. Anther with- 
out a lid, borne on the back of the column, erect. Stigma ovate, prolonged into an acumi- 
nate beak, at length bifid, covering the anther and stigmatic only underneath. Pollinia 2, r 
in each sac, powdery. Capsule ovoid or oblong, erect, [Greek, referring to the twisted spikes]. 
About 80 species, widely distributed in tropical and temperate regions. Besides the following, 
another occurs in the Southern States and one in California. The flowers are often fragrant. 
Flowers 3-ranked; stems not twisted, or but slightly so. 
Sepals and petals more or less connivent into a hood. 1. G. Romanzoffiana. 
Lateral sepals separate, free. 
Spike short, about 2’ long, 4’’-5'’ thick; callosities none, or mere thickenings of the basal 
margins of the lip. 2. G. plantaginea. 
Spike 4'-6' long, 6'’-10'' thick; callosities nipple-shaped. 
Spike 6'’-7"" thick; callosities hairy, straight. 3. G. cernua. 
Spike 8’’-10'’ thick; callosities glabrous, incurved. 4. G. odorata, 
Flowers merely alternate, appearing secund from the spiral twisting of the stem. 
Stem leafy; lower leaves elongated, mostly persistent through the flowering season. 
5. G. praecox. 
Stem a bracted scape; leaves basal, mostly withering before the flowering season. 
Root a single tuber; spike about 1’ long. 6. G. simplex. 
Root a cluster of tubers; spike 1/-3' long. 7. G. gracilis. 
1. Gyrostachys Romanzoffiana (Cham. ) 
MacM. Hooded Ladies’ Tresses. (Fig. 1121.) 
Spiranthes Romanzofiana Cham. Linnaea, 3: 32. 1828. 
Gyrostachys Romanzoffiana MacM. Met. Minn. 171. 1892. 
Stem 6/-15’ high, glabrous, leafy below, bracted 
above, the inflorescence rarely puberulent. Lower 
leaves 3/-8’ long, linear or linear-oblanceolate; spike 
2’-4’ long, 4/’-7’’ thick; bracts shorter than the 
flowers; flowers in 3 rows, white or greenish, ringent, 
3/’-4’’ long, spreading horizontally, very fragrant; 
sepals and petals broad at the base, all more or less 
connivent into a hood; lip oblong, broad at the base, 
contracted below the dilated crisped apex, thin, trans- 
parent, veined; callosities mere thickenings of the 
basal margins of the lip, or none. 
In bogs, Nova Scotia to Alaska, south to Maine, Penn- 
sylvania, Minnesota and California. July—Aug. 
2. Gyrostachys plantaginea (Raf.) Britton. Wide-leaved Ladies’ Tresses. 
(Fig. 1122.) 
Neottia plantaginea Raf. Am. Month. Mag. 2: 206. 1818. 
Spiranthes cernua var.? latifolia Torr. Comp. 320. 1826. 
Spiranthes plantaginea Torr. Fl. N. Y. 2: 284. 1843. 
S. latifolia Torr.; Lindl. Gen. & Sp. Orch. 467. 1840. 
Gyrostachys latifolia Kuntze, Rev. Gen. Pl. 664. 1891. 
Stem 4/-10’ high, glabrous or pubescent, bracted 
above, bearing 4 or 5 lanceolate or oblanceolate leaves 
below. Leaves 1/-5’ long; spike 1/-2’ long, 4’/-5/’ 
thick, dense; floral bracts mostly much shorter than the 
flowers; flowers spreading, about 3/’ long; petals and 
sepals white; lateral sepals free, narrowly lanceolate, 
the upper somewhat united with the petals; lip pale 
yellow on the face, oblong, not contracted in the mid- 
dle, the wavy apex rounded, crisped or fringed, the 
base short-clawed; callosities none, or mere thicken- 
ings of the lip margins. 
Moist banks and woods, New Brunswick to Minnesota, 
south to Virginia and Michigan. June-Aug. 
