NEOrriE^— EPIPACTIS 8i 



(about 2 mm.), white, convex behind, green and flat in front below stigma, with a 

 shallow cup (clinandrium) at the apex below the anther, its low walls ending in a 

 white translucent staminode on each side. Stigma transversely oblong with a tooth 

 at each upper corner, and a small projection in the centre on which the whitish oval 

 rostellum rests. Anther yellow, hood-like, obtuse, hinged at the back, minutely 

 papillose outside. Pollinia creamy white, maggot-shaped, without caudicles (stalks), 

 deposited in the clinandrium with their thin ends attached to the rostellum. Capsule 

 small, hanging, ovoid, downy. Testa of seed short, broad, transparent, broad-meshed 

 (only half as long as in E. latifolid), embryo broadly oval, not lemon-shaped, yellow. 



It took over an hour to dig up the root-system of the plant shown in PL 1 1, which 

 had over 40 roots. It appeared to grow in the solid rock, but this was really a mosaic 

 of closely fitting angular fragments, like a Chinese puzzle, the very narrow crevices 

 between them full of soil. The roots were long, some over 20 cm., with flat spear- 

 shaped tips adherent to the rock. Two or three of the roots had a rounded swelling 

 towards the end from which two or three roots grew, one growing upwards, probably to 

 form a new bud. Figs. D, E show a curious discovery made at Brides-les-Bains, Savoie, 

 in July, 1926, when digging up a plant of E. ruhiginosa. One of the roots had entered 

 an old snail-shell underground, full of earth, had made two turns inside, and come out 

 through a hole in the apex of the shell in the form of a young blanched shoot with 

 incipient leaves. The number and length of the roots in the British plant figured were 

 very striking. The stem became very slender below, only i mm. thick at the junction 

 with the rhizome, as against 4 mm. just below the lowest leaf. 



In Britain £. ruhiginosa is easily distinguished from E. latifolia by its dwarf stiff 

 habit (it is often much taller abroad), the short stiff folded leaves with a sharp tip, 

 growing in two opposite ranks, the short stiff few-flowered spike, the shorter and 

 narrower bracts, the short broad dark red sepals and petals, the short hairy ovary, 

 and the tubercled sometimes almost toothed bosses at the base of the forepart of 

 the lip. The -va.nttj purpurea of E. latifolia is sometimes mistaken for it, but the colour 

 is not the same, and the other characters of E. ruhiginosa are absent. 



Habitat. Bare limestone rocks in full sunlight, often in company with Heli- 

 anthemum canum, Veronica spicata, and other limestone plants. Rare and local in Britain 

 and Ireland, where it is neither a dune nor a woodland plant. It is frequent on the 

 Continent, especially in and on the borders of open woods, but it also grows on 

 limestone rocks and slopes up to 2000 m. in the Tyrol. Although it occurs in such 

 widely different localities it varies but little except in size. In mountain woods in 

 Savoie at 1400 m. it is as tall as E. latifolia (40 cm.) and with leaves nearly as broad. 

 In Britain it is a dwarf stumpy plant with small dull-coloured flowers. The woodland 

 plant of Switzerland and Southern France is more luxuriant with more brilliantly 

 coloured flowers. It has, though rarely, been found with yellowish green and 



