112 NATIVE BRITISH ORCHIDACE^ 



peduncle. Leaves two, nearly opposite, erect, oblong, rather acute, keeled, many- 

 nerved, shining, greasy-looking (whence the name Liparis, from the Greek liparos, 

 greasy), about half as long as the flowering stem, with elongated sheathing bases. 

 Raceme loose, few-flowered (i-io, sometimes up to 18). Flowers rather small (but 

 much larger than those oiMalaxis), greenish yellow, inconspicuous, with very narrow 

 sepals and petals, and broader lip. Bracts small, lanceolate, keeled, very short 

 (± I mm.), i-nerved, the lowest sometimes longer, or even foliaceous. Ovary 

 spindle-shaped, rather 3 -angled, 6-ribbed, straight or slightly twisted at the base, 

 erect in fruit, stalk rather long, twisted, 3 -angled, furrowed. Sepals linear, narrow, 

 acute or obtuse, spreading, slightly inrolled, yellowish or yellow-green. Petals 

 similar, narrower, often shorter. Lip usually but not invariably pointing upwards, 

 curved, oblong or oblong-ovate, obtuse, folded, trough-like, usually crenate, some- 

 times wavy-edged, undivided, petaloid, much broader than and nearly as long as the 

 sepals, yellowish, of a deeper shade, without spur. Column erect, flat in front above, 

 but rounded out at the base, narrowed in the middle, with rounded crenate forward- 

 directed side-wings at the apex, protecting the anther and stigma, a clinandrium or 

 shallow cup at the apex, in which the pollinia are deposited, and a furrow down the 

 front. Stigma small, quadrangular, transversely oblong, depressed, with rather 

 prominent edges. Rostellum minute, horizontal, toothed (Reichenbach). Anther 

 sessile at apex of column, deciduous (Hooker), ending in a deciduous membranous 

 appendage, 2-celled, cells bi-locular. Pollen-masses four, waxy, globose, laterally 

 compressed, side by side in contiguous pairs, each pair attached to an evanescent 

 viscidium. Fruiting capsules rather large, spindle-shaped. 



PL E, fig. 2, gives a good idea of the habit of the plant, and of the greater con- 

 spicuousness of the lip. Small bog-plants with yellowish green inconspicuous flowers 

 with very narrow sepals and petals, much broader Up bent at right angles in the 

 middle, and two erect shining greasy-looking leaves ; also two green pseudo-bulbs, 

 side by side, surrounded by the decaying remnants of leaves. Very hard to see, 

 owing to its small greenish flowers, and more easily detected by searching for the 

 leaves, which differ in shape and by their lighter colour from the surrounding marsh 

 plants. Richard said that it has no rostellum, and that the ovary is usually imperfect 

 and abortive. This was probably based on plants from wliich the evanescent rostellum 

 had already disappeared, and in which the abortion of the ovary was an accidental 

 occurrence. I found it with well-developed fruit on the shores of the Lake of Geneva, 

 whilst the Rev. H. J. Riddelsdell found it in Wales in good quantity and in excellent 

 fruit. I 



Var. ovata Riddelsdell. Leaves broad, elliptical, obtuse. 



Habitat. Spongy or sandy bogs, often in cusliions of moss. Hence it is liable 



■ Riddelsdell, /.£. p. 274 (1905). 



