THE ORCHIDS OF NEW ENGLAND. 



65 



ons, there is a furrow or median line on the lip, corresponding 

 probably to the nectar-secreting groove in Listera, and as the 

 edges of the lip curve up at the sides, an insect would have but 

 one easy mode of entrance offered, and in crawling up this pas- 

 sage-way would be led directly under the anther. Barton gives 

 a fairly good plate of this Liparis, calling it Malaxis longifolia, 

 the Long-leaved Malaxis, and describes the root as " a roundish 

 bulb, sending off a few radicles and a large offset, the germ of 

 a new plant." England produces a smaller species, and this, 

 together with Listera ovata, is considered by Grant Allen to 

 be degenerating like H. viridis. 



Our more common species, L. lilii- 

 folia, Barton's Lily-leaved Malaxis, with 

 brownish-purple, larger-lipped flowers, 

 follows L. Lceselii in the course of a 

 week or so. This species grows as far 

 south as Georgia ; L. Lceselii ranges 

 from New England and the Middle 

 States to Wisconsin and above the 

 50th parallel. I was quite impressed by 

 the diminutive size of Listera cordata 

 until I opened an herbarium containing 

 among its Orchids a row of fully devel- 

 oped plants related to Liparis {Malaxis 

 palndosa from Scotland), few of them 

 over an inch high. 



Some pasture, threaded by sluggish 

 streams, or some wet road-side, will, 

 about the middle of June, afford the 

 next Orchid and the first of the genus 

 Spiranthes or Ladies' Tresses; 5. latifolia, the Broad-leaved 

 Spiranthes. The small, white blossoms, climbing spirally up 

 their spike, and suggesting to a highly imaginative person a 

 lock of hair, would seem to have originated the popular name ; 



-^%^J 



Fig. 19. — Lily-leaved Liparis. 

 L. liliifolia. 



