ORCHIDACEiE 



THE GENUS HABENARIA IN NORTH AMERICA 



INTRODUCTION 



THE genus Habenaria has undergone a series of changes at 

 the hands of those botanists who have given it special at- 

 tention until at the present time it is an arduous task to com- 

 prehend its rational limits. No two systematists agree in their 

 revisions; and while some have considered the treatment in 

 Bentham and Hooker's Genera Plantarum too broad, includ- 

 ing as it does the recognized groups of many authors under one 

 general heading, namely, Habenaria, others have not been con- 

 tent to reestablish as genera such subgeneric groups as Gymna- 

 denia, Platanthera, Peristylus and Coeloglossum, but have made 

 segregates from several of them. Although there maybe excellent 

 reasons both for and against the maintenance of Habenaria in 

 the sense in which it was understood by the authors of the Genera 

 Plantarum, the weight of authority seems to uphold the broader 

 view. So eminent a student of the Orchidaceas as Lindley ex- 

 pressed grave doubts as to the validity of the characters on which 

 he admitted as distinct groups Gymnadenia and Peristylus in 

 his Genera and Species of Orchidaceous Plants. In fact it is 

 usually with apologies, doubts, or detailed explanations that au- 

 thors accept the smaller groups which have been at one time or 

 another put into or removed from Habenaria. 



It is futile to discuss what are sufficient characters on which 

 to construct a genus, as personal opinion is largely influential and 



[3] 



