MALAXIDEyE—CORALLORUlZA 115 



oval or triangular, in front of column just below anther. Rostellum small, globular. 

 It is well seen in the two flowers facing forwards in PI. E, fig. 3. 



Habitat. In damp woods, generally on bare soil, amongst fallen leaves, in cushions 

 of moss, in peaty marshes amongst alders, or in damp places amongst sand-dunes. 

 Rather gregarious. Not parasitic, but a saprophyte, living on decaying organic 

 matter. Flowers June to July. Usually a mountain species. In early places it may 

 flower in May, in later ones in August, according to elevation. 



Distribution. Apparently confined to Scotland : Aberdeen, Berwick, Edinburgh, 

 Fife, Forfar, Inverness, Kincardine, Perth, Ross. Northern, Central, and parts of 

 Southern Europe (Alpes Maritimes, Bosnia and Dalmatia), Siberia, N. America. Only 

 one European species, but six species in the United States and Canada. 



Rouyi says the plant is a parasite on the roots of beech. He probably employs the 

 word in a general sense, including saprophytes. It occurs in beech-woods, for the 

 thick layer of dead leaves is favourable to it, but it does not draw nourishment from 

 living plants, and is not therefore a true parasite. It is a saprophyte, without special 

 organs for parasitism. It occurs also on moist ground among sand-dunes, as on 

 the sands of Barry and on Culbin sands, where there are no trees. 



Barla says that the pollinia are immediately applied to the stigma,^ and Camus 

 that it has no rostellum,3 statements probably due to herbarium material, or possibly 

 to specimens of living plants sent from a distance, from which the rostellum had 

 abready been removed by insects. Inconspicuous as they are, the flowers are 

 organised to attract insects, as shown by the white lip spotted with red, the short 

 saccate spur, the groove along the centre of the lip enclosed by parallel ridges leading 

 to the spur, and the viscidium for attaching the polhnia to insect visitors. 



The wide distribution — Europe, Asia, and N. America — shows the great antiquity 

 of the species. 



CoRALLORHiZA INNATA R. Br. in Ait. Horf. Kew. v, 208 (1813). Ophrys 

 CoRALLORHiZA L., Sp. pi. ed. I, p. 945 (1753). Epipactis Corallorhiza 

 Crantz (1769). 



Fertilisation. According to H. MuUer {Alpenhlumen, 1881) the small yellow- 

 green flowers, with only the hp white, appear to indicate that the visitors are small 

 insects with short proboscis, who crawl up the groove in the middle of the lip to the 

 sharp bend near its base (where it turns downwards towards the nectary) and there 

 come in contact with the rostellum, which, together with the attached pollinia, 

 becomes affixed to the head of the insect. There is thus a certain similarity with the 

 lip of Listera ovata, which also has a median groove and a sharp bend near the base, 



' F/. de 'Prance, xiii, 218. 



» Icon. Orch. Alpes Maritimes, p. 19 (1868). 3 Camus, Icon. p. 435- 



15-2 



