ORCHIDACE^ 119 



Pringle's and Nelson's collections from Mexico, distributed as 

 S. (jraminea, Lindl. That the Mexican species is the same as that 

 from the United States is not at all clear. Dr. Gray, however, 

 must have regarded the two closely related, as his S. graminea, 

 var. Walteri, indicates. In the fifth edition of the Manual the 

 synonomy and remarks given by Dr. Gray are as follows : " (Li- 

 modorum praecox, Walt. Neottia tortiHs, Pursh, Barton, Fl., etc. 

 S. tortiHs, Chapm.) — Wet, grassy places, S. New England to Vir- 

 ginia, and southward. July, August, at the north. — Root of 

 fleshy or somewhat tuberous thickened fibres. Perianth 3'' long. — 

 The original. West Indian S. tortilis (Swartz), Richard, has a 

 smoother much less twisted spike, smaller bracts, and more leaf- 

 less scape, the root-leaves seldom present at flowering-time : it is 

 very hke S. brevifolia, Chapm, (S. longilabris, Lindl. 1). Our 

 plant has a more acute tip to the anther and stigma than the 

 Mexican." 



Lindley's description of Spiranthes graminea in Bentham's 

 Plantae Hartwegianse, p. 25 (1840), is as follows : " fohis lineari- 

 bus acutis basi angustatis caule vaginato multo brevioribus, spica 

 densa pubescente, bracteis ovatis acutis florum longitudine, sejDalis 

 acuminatis obtusissimis cum labello sessili oblongo obtuso apice 

 crispo parallehs, callis adnatis." And in his Genera and Species of 

 Orchidaceous Plants, p. 466, he added a note, in which he said : 

 " The nearest affinity of this species is with Sp. ovalis, from which 

 it differs, not only in the characters above given, but in its greater 

 stature, (my specimen is nearly ll foot high) narrow leaves, and 

 much more simply twisted spike, which in S. ovalis seems to have 

 several spires as in S. odorata and its allies." In the description 

 published in the same work Lindl ey assigned to S. graminea a 

 tomentose pubescence. In the specimens I have examined this 

 character is quite conspicuous, the hairs of the rhachis being long 

 and somewhat matted, thus differing from S. vernalis, which has 

 a shorter less matted pubescence. 



