82 NATIVE BRITISH ORCHIDACEyE 



greenish white flowers.' Webster says^ that when transferred to a sheltered garden, 

 its habit is not in the least changed, even after a number of years, and that it flowers 

 in mid-July. The wild plant flowers in June and July. 



Distribution. Carnarvonshire! Yorks. (Settle, Grassington). Limestone pave- 

 ment, Ben Suardal, Skye (Druce, J.B. p. 167 (19 16)), Durness, Sutherland (E.B.), 

 Burram and other hills, Co. Clare, Ireland (E.B.). Westmorland (Watson, Top. Bot.). 

 Ballyvaughan (abundant), Cappanawalla mountain (abundant). Sparingly, rocky valley 

 near Cong. Ascends to 1000 ft. in Burren {Cyb. Hibern.). Recorded for Little Doward 

 Hill, Hereford, but this appears to have been E. atroviridis W. R. Linton. Scandinavia 

 to Spain, Italy, the Balkans, Russia, Caucasus, N. Persia. 



Epipactis Helleborine a E. rubiginosa Crantz, Stirp. Austr. vr, 467 (1769). 

 Serapias latifolia * ATRORUBENS Hoffmann (1804). Epipactis atro- 



PURPUREA Raf. (1810). E. ATRORUBENS Schult. (1814). E. LATIFOLIA 



/3 RUBIGINOSA Gaud. (1829). E. media Fries (1839). E. ovalis Bab. (1843). 

 E. RUBIGINOSA "Gaud." Koch (1844). Helleborine atropurpurea 

 Druce. 



Babington identified what is now known as £. leptochila Godf. as "E. media Fries", 

 and described the British form of E. rubiginosa as a new species (H. ovalis Bab.), 

 apparently overlooking the fact that Fries himself cited £. atrorubens {E. rubiginosa) 

 as synonymous with his E. media. 



Fries gave three colour-forms of his E. media, {a) "floribus albis", ib) "floribus 

 viridibus ", {c) " floribus roseo-rubris ". That he regarded {c) as the type is clear from liis 

 lengthy comparison of E. media with E. latifolia. He states that in E. media the basal 

 leafless sheaths are open and funnel-shaped, the bracts shorter than the flowers, the 

 flowers smaller (than in E. latifolia), the hp-bosses plicate-crenate, the ovary hairy — all 

 distinguishing characteristics of E. rubiginosa. As the latter sometimes occurs with 

 greenish flowers (I have once seen it so in Britain), these would naturally form his 

 variety {b) with which Serapias viridiflora Rchb. was synonymous, according to Koch. 

 Fries, however, remarked that it was doubtful to wliich (i.e. E. latifolia or E. media) 

 S. viridiflora most probably belonged, and it is now regarded as a form of E. latifolia. 



Crantz was the first to differentiate E. rubiginosa from the two allied species, and 

 the fact that he named it E. Helleborine a E. rubiginosa shows that he did not regard 

 it as a variety (in wliich case he would have written E. Helleborine a rubiginosa), but 

 as a species. It seems contrary to the spirit of the Vienna rules to ignore the priority 

 of the name given to it by its first discoverer, on the ground that it was only that 

 of a variety, especially when he apparently leaned to the view that it was a species, 

 but might alternatively be regarded as a variety. 



Fertilisation. E. rubiginosa, like E. latifolia, is entirely dependent on insects for 

 I A. and G. Sjti. iii, 867. - Brit. Orchids, p. 23 (1898). 



