116 ORCHIDACEM 



with a slender form which extends from New Jersey to southern 

 Florida. 



In the Gray Herbarium there are three plants collected by 

 Austin which are undoubtedly of the same collection as that on 

 which Dr. Rydberg based his description of Gyrostachys linearis. 

 The three specimens are very much alike, and much resemble, but 

 are more slender in habit than, the type specimens of Spiranthes 

 vernalis. Accompanying the sheet is a manuscript note by Austin 

 which points out clearly the differences between his specimens and 

 S. cernuaj and in which he says, " I have seen this plant in Dr. 

 Torrey's herbarium from the extreme South, but unnamed." He 

 referred his material to S. tortilis, Richard, from which species it 

 is to be distinguished by the dense pubescence of the rhachis and 

 by the different inflorescence. This sheet is of especial interest, 

 as it was determined by Dr. Gray as Spiranthes graminea with 

 a query. Another sheet of this species in the same herbarium, 

 representing a collection made by W. M. Canby in New Castle Co., 

 Del., in 1863, was also determined by Dr. Gray as S. graminea^ 

 Lindl., and later named 8. prcRCOX by Dr. Sereno Watson, and 

 leaves no doubt as to the identity of the material these botanists 

 had in mind in their work on Gray's Manual. 



Dr. Small, in his Flora of the Southeastern United States, de- 

 scribed Gyrostachys xyridifolia from plants collected by A. H. 

 Curtiss (no. 4856) near Jacksonville, Fla., in May, 1894. The 

 type sheet shows four specimens, one of which is a stout plant 

 with equitant leaves. The remaining specimens are slender, with- 

 out leaves, and resemble closely G. linearis, Rydb. In my herba- 

 rium there are numerous specimens collected near Jacksonville 

 which agree perfectly with Dr. Small's material in all essentials 

 and pass gradually into the slender Florida form referred above 

 to G. linearis, Rydb., on the one hand, and into Spiranthes neg- 

 lecta, Ames, on the other, so that there seems to be no character 

 of sufficient classificatory strength by which to separate these 

 species from each other or from S. ver?ialis. Dr. Small in his key 

 to Gyrostachys described the bracts of G. xyridifolia as without 

 scarious margins, but this distinguishing mark is variable, and his 



