EPIPOGONEM—EPIPOGON 119 



Habitat. Shady woods ; in Britain under oak, on the Continent under beech, and 

 sometimes under pine, singly or in colonies. In the few stations in which I have 

 seen it, it has been on ground free from undergrowth. It often disappears from its 

 stations abroad, sometimes for several years, growing and increasing underground 

 by thread-like runners, and then, when a favourable season occurs, suddenly bursting 

 into flower. Flowers July to August. In England it has once been found in June, 

 and once as late as September 3rd. 



Distribution. First found in Britain by Mrs W. Anderton Smith in 1854 on a 

 path at the foot of a very steep bank at Tedstone Delamere, near Bromyard, Hereford- 

 shire iVhjtologist, p. 118 (185 5)), and figured {Bot. Mag. t. 4821 (1854)) from a drawing 

 by the finder, later reproduced in the Flora oj Herefordshire (1889). On August 23rd, 

 1854, the Rev. W. Anderton Smith found a colony of it near the original locality, 

 who, fearing its destruction by timber carting, removed it to his garden, where it 

 no doubt soon died. The first specimen found was sent to Prof. Babington, and is 

 in the Cambridge Herbarium. There is a note on the Babington sheet at Cambridge, 

 where there is a painting of the Salopian plant dated August, 1881, that it was seen 

 by a retired chemist named Cockney, who thought it was a deformed Bee Orchid. 

 In 1876 a specimen was found by Miss Lloyd in a wood near Ludlow, Salop, and 

 another in 1878. On September 3rd, 1892, a small flowering specimen was found by 

 Dr G. C. Druce in the same locality, and is now in his herbarium. A solitary example is 

 said to have been found near Ross on Wye, Herefordshire, ini9io. In June, 1924, two 

 small specimens were found in an Oxfordshire wood. The following month Dr Druce 

 was fortunate enough to find a specimen stiU in flower, but past its best,'' now in 

 the British Museum Herbarium, S. Kensington. 



Continental distribution: Scandinavia, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France, 

 Pyrenees, Italy, Serbia, Central and S. Russia, Caucasus, Siberia, Himalayas. ^ 



Epipogon APHYLLUM Swartz, Summa Veg. Scand. p. 32 (1814). Satyrium epi- 

 POGiuM L., Sp. pi. ed. I, p. 945 (1753). Epipogon Gmelini Rich. (1818). 

 E. EPiPOGiuM Karsten (1883). 



Fertilisation. The flowers have an attractive banana-like scent, resembling that 



of Stanhopea, and secrete nectar. They are wholly dependent on insects for pollination, 



and are never self-fertilised, which indeed would be impossible, as the poUinia are 



enclosed with only the tips of their caudicles (stalks) showing, and the stigma is above 



the anther. Some outside agency is therefore essential to withdraw the poUinia from 



their hiding place and carry them up to the stigma, which must always be that of 



another flower, as the pollinia are only withdrawn on the departure of the insect. 



Very few capsules are produced. 



' B.E.C. p. 330 (1923) and p. 453 (1924). 

 * Camus, Mon. Orch. d' Europe, p. 364 (1908). 



