ORCHIDACE^: 271 



Distribution. Alps, Jura, Pyrenees, Vosges, Auvergne, Caucasus, 

 Central and Northern Europe, Siberia, N. America ; British Isles. 



CEPHALANTHERA Rich. 



Handsome plants with the habit and foliage of Epipactis, but 

 the flowers are almost sessile, erect, usually larger and more beautiful, 

 white or red ; the lip has no protuberances at the base of the upper 

 portion ; the column is longer and the anther shortly stalked. 



A small European and North Asiatic genus. 



Cephalanthera rubra Rich. Red Helleborine. 



Stems flexuose, 10-20 inches high. Leaves oval to lanceolate, 

 acute. Spike loose, with glandular axis. Flowers bright pink, 

 handsome, with rather narrow white lip. Ovary pubescent. Bracts 

 longer than the ovary. 



Woods and thickets, chiefly on limestone ; rather scarce, extend- 

 ing to 4500 feet at least. June, July. 



Distribution. Europe, Western Asia. Very rare in England. 



Cephalanthera longifolia Fritsch. (C. rusifolia Rich.). 



Resembling the last in habit and size, but the flowers are pure 

 white, more distant than in the next species, and the sepals narrower 

 and more pointed. The leaves are longer, narrower, and stiffer 

 than in either species, being almost linear-lanceolate. 



Wooded hillsides up to 4500 feet in Switzerland. May, June. 



Distribution. Europe, Western Asia, N. Africa. Scarce in 

 Britain. 



Cephalanthera latifolia Janchen (C. pallens Rich., C. grandiflora 

 Bab.). 



Stem 1-2 feet high. Leaves prominently veined ; the lower 

 ones broadly ovate, the upper broadly lanceolate. Flowers cream- 

 coloured, in a loose leafy spike, all the bracts being longer than the 

 ovary, and the lower ones quite leaf-like and considerably longer 

 than the flowers. Sepals oblong and usually obtuse. Lip small, 

 in two distinct parts. 



Woods and thickets, scattered, extending to the sub-alpine 

 zone. June. 



Distribution. Europe, extending eastwards to the Caucasus 

 and Asia Minor, and northward to Denmark and the British 

 Isles ; Algeria. 



All three kinds of Cephalanthera and many other interesting 

 orchids grow in the woods or pastures about Engelberg in central 

 Switzerland, on the mountain limestone at a height of about 

 4000 feet. A lady staying there in June, 1909, found about 26 

 different Orchids in that charming locality. 



