ORCHIDACEiE 



complete specimens I have studied are clearly shown in the illus- 

 tration. (Plate 107.) From this material one is only justified in 

 making assumptions. It would be strange, indeed, if/, qffinis did 

 not produce root-shoots, but conclusive proof that it does do so 

 is still wanting. 



Although it is not the purpose of this work to survey the fifty 

 or more species that might properly come within its scope, some 

 mention should be made of the Asiatic species that bears a strik- 

 ing resemblance to Pogonia ophioglossoides and is sometimes 

 referred to it. In 1858, when Asa Gray put forth his classic paper 

 which contained observations upon the relations of the Japanese 

 flora to that of North America,^ he included in the list of species 

 common to New England and Japan two orchids, Liparis lilii- 

 folia^ and Pogonia ophioglossoides. More recent authors have 

 found characters which they regard sufficiently significant to 

 warrant the recognition of the Japanese Pogonia as a distinct 

 species and the nameP.Japomm Reichb. f. has been accepted 

 for it by the latest monographer of the Sino- Japanese orchid 

 flora. I have examined herbarium material of the Chinese and 

 Japanese Pogonia that has been referred to P.japonica and find 

 that the most striking character is in the labellum. This organ 

 is distinctly three-lobed. In our New England P. ophioglossoides 

 the lip is sometimes obscurely three-lobed, but as a rule tenden- 

 cies toward lobing are suppressed or obscured by a copious and 

 deep fringe. Blume figured his P. similis, a species now merged 

 with P. japonica, with a conspicuously three-lobed lip. Except 

 for this lobing of the hp and a slight difference in the habit, and 

 in the color of dried specimens, there is nothing to distinguish 

 the Asiatic from the American species. Whether or not the dif- 



1 Memoirs of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences n. s. 6, pt. 2 (1858) 377. 



2 The Asiatic Liparis is now referred to L. Makinoana Schltr. 



[8] 



