134 ENGLISH BOTANY. 



Kent; but if it ever occurred there, it is now extinct. Bogs at Laken- 

 licath and Tuddenhain Heath, Suffolk; St. Faith's bogs, near Norwich, 

 and Roy den Fen, near Diss, Norfolk: in the latter it was found as 

 lately as 1855, by Miss Barnard. In several moors at Cambridge j 

 Hinton Moor, about the year 1800; and Teversham Moor, in 1723; 

 Burwell Fen, near Reche, in 1836, by Dr. J. A. Power; Bottishara 

 Fen, by Professor Henslow ; and, I believe, tAVO or three plants were 

 found in Wicken Fen as lately as 1863. 



England. Perennial. Summer. 



Rootstock enveloped in soft whitish sheaths, producing an offshoot 

 at the side from which the stem of the succeeding year is developed. 

 Leaves radical, their stalks enveloped by 2 (rarely 3) subscarious 

 sheaths ; lamina 1 to 3|^ inches long. Stem 3 to 8 inches high. 

 Raceme f to 4 inches long. Bracts of the lower flowers strapshaped, 

 longer than the flowers ; the upper bract, or sometimes all of them, 

 minute and shorter than the ovary. Pedicels shorter than the ovary, 

 at first ascending, afterwards erect. Sepals about \ inch long. Whole 

 flower greenish-yellow; the labellum rather darker, channelled, undu- 

 lated, or slightly crenate. Leaves very smooth, bright green. 



There is no sufficient reason for adopting the name Sturmia, on 

 account of Liparis having been previously in use in zoology. If this 

 rule were carried out, it would change hundreds of the more modern 

 names in the vegetable and animal kingdoms. Professor Reichenbach 

 himself, in " Seeman's Journal of Botany," 1865, p. 2, writes, " I am 

 " a decided opponent of the view that the same generic name could 

 " not be used both in the animal and vegetable kingdoms, making ex- 

 " ception only that the generally known names of animals cannot be 

 " received in botany." 



Fen Orchis. 



German, L'useVs Glanzkraut 



GENUS XVIL—M A L A X I S. Schwartz. 



Perianth subherbaceous, spreading, the sepals much larger than the 

 petals ; labellum uppermost, shorter and not broader than the sepals, 

 concave, entire, not spurred at the base. Column very short, straight. 

 Anther tenuiual, lidlike, persistent, ■without an apical ap^^endage ; 

 pollen-masses 4, combined in pairs, obliquely incumbent, all attached 

 to a single gland; pollen waxy. 



A small herb growing in sphagnous bogs, with the base of the 

 stems swollen and surrounded by sheaths, the new bulb formed above 

 the old one. Leaves few, the upper ones larger. Flowers rather 



