NEOTT/EyE— SPIRANTHES 89 



specimens from the Caucasus were like those of Neottia nidus-avis. Text-fig. 9 shows 

 the present and last year's roots, and two very young, for next year. The flower-stem 

 does not clearly arise from one root and the new rosette of leaves from another, as 

 in Orchis, but both seem to arise from a sort of crown where the roots unite at their 

 bases. S. aiitumnalis is unique in that the new rosette of leaves (which will persist 

 through the winter and flower next year) is already well developed at the time of 

 flowering. Last year's leaves, from the centre of which the present year's flower- 

 spike arose, have then entirely disappeared, or left only withered remains. The gland- 

 tipped hairs clothing the stem, leaf-sheaths, bracts, neck of ovary and outside of the 

 flowers are for the exclusion of small insects whose visits would be of no service 

 to the plant. The fringe of hairs round the lower edge of the stigma serves the same 

 purpose, closing the shallow passage leading to the nectary, but offering no obstacle 

 to the proboscis of bees, etc. There is no similar fringe of hairs in S. astivalis or 

 S. R.oman':(offiana, perhaps because they grow in marshy localities, where ground insects 

 are less frequent. The prongs of the green fork which support the viscidium and are 

 left behind after its withdrawal often seem much longer than they really are owing 

 to the membranous sides of the clinandrium being also left behind and appearing 

 to form a continuation of the fork on each side. The fork is also shorter in the upper 

 flowers than in the lower, sometimes nearly as short as in S. cestivalis. The long horns 

 of the latter, as figured by Schulze and Hegi, look as if they had been drawn from 

 S. autunmalis, as in reality they are very short. This is the last of our native orchids 

 to flower, S. cBstivalis and S. 'Koman^offiana being then quite over. It is at once known 

 by the spiral spike of very small white sweet-scented flowers in a single rank. It is 

 easily distinguished from Goodyera repens, which somewhat resembles it, by the 

 Epipactis-Vike. lip of the latter, with its deep basal pouch and long spout-like apical 

 half, as well as by their different habitats and time of flowering. 



Habitat. Hilly pastures, open downs, moist meadows, usually on chalk or lime- 

 stone, grassy or sandy ground near the sea, sometimes in sand. On the French 

 Riviera it occurs in open cork woods on scliist, as at Hyeres, or in bushy waste 

 calcareous land, as at Nice. Flowers August and September; in the south of France, 

 where the time of flowering depends on the date of the earliest rains, in September 

 and October. 



Distribution. England, Wales and Ireland Records north of the Humber 

 perhaps doubtful. In Ireland found in eight of the twelve botanical districts {Cybele 

 Hibernica, p. 338), Chaimel Islands (B.E.C. p. 130 (1917)). Europe from Denmark 

 and Central Russia southwards, Transcaucasia, Asia Minor, N. Africa. 



Spiranthes autumnalis Rich., Mem. Mus. Paris, rv, 59 (1818). Ophrys 

 SPIRALIS a L., Sp. pi. ed. i, p. 945 (1753). O. autumnalis Balb. (1801). 

 Spiranthes spiralis Koch (1839). 



