49 



jointed part curved outward and downward, concave-grooved, 

 comparable in shape to the half of a shoe-eyelet, the tip slightly 

 curled: column twice longer than the anther. According to 

 MacDougal, Bull. Torr. Club, 26: 512, this is not a true sapro- 

 phyte, but may be called a symbiotic saprophyte. 

 Eburophyton Austinae (A. Gray) 



Chloraea Austinae A. Gray, Proc. Am. Acad. 13 : 83. 1876. 



Cephalanthera Oregatta Reichenb. f. Linnaea, 41: 53. 

 1877. 



Cephalanthera Atcstmae Heller, Cat. Ed. 2, 4. 1900. 



The description given above was drawn chiefly from fresh 

 material, my No. 5936, collected in rich woods in moist, deeply 

 shaded places in I^ake county, California, midway between Pot- 

 ter Valley and Hullville, on the slope of Mt. Sanhedrin. The 

 original, as described by Gray, was collected on "banks of a 

 wooded ravine in the Sierra Nevada, California, near Quincy, in 

 Plumas Co., Mrs. R. M. Austin." 



Outwardly at least, our plant bears more resemblance to the 

 South American Chloraea than it does to Cephalanthera^ which 

 is confined to Europe and northern Asia, and so far as I know 

 is composed of ordinary terrestrial herbs with green chlorophyll, 

 ample leaves, and flowers in which red predominates. Indeed, 

 if the present plant is to be referred to any established genus, it 

 might as well be called an Epipactis^ for it has various charac- 

 ters in common with Epipactis giganteus^ which grows in the 

 same region. In the "Botany of Califoraia," 3: 137, it is said 

 that "in its peculiar leafless and parasitic habit our species resem- 

 bles the American Bletia aphylla^ which in the same way differs 

 from all its congeners." Rafinesque created the genus Hexalec- 

 tris for Bletia aphylla^ and as Hexalectris it is known in the 

 standard works which cover the region where it grows. In my 

 opinion a plant of such peculiar habit should be separated on 

 that point alone, even if floral and fruit characters are similar to 

 some other plants. 



