THE ORCHID REVIEW. 
October, 1921.] 
surface of the protocorm, the fungal hyphae could be clearly seen in their 
course from the interior of the protocorm to the humus from which, 
presumably, they help to bring in substances that the Orchid utilizes, and 
in exchange for which they may be supplied with something more than an 
abiding place. These hairs are round at the end and the hyphae penetrate 
the tips. It is worth while to note in this connection that the body of the 
protocorm may, as it were, be suspended by these hairs and consequently 
free from direct contact with the substratum. 
The growth of the protocorms is slow, and a wide range of variation is 
noticeable in the rate at which different seedlings develop. As cold weather 
approaches it is possible to find many protocorms that have failed to 
produce a leaf. Then there is a dormant period, and the protocorms are 
found in the spring in the same condition in which they entered on their 
winter rest. 
Although in the course of my studies I have examined, literally, 
thousands of protocorms of Goodyera pubesceits —a statement that may well 
call forth severe criticism from those who are laudably striving to protect 
our native Orchids from extermination by ruthless hands—I have failed to 
find one that was not thoroughly infected by a mycorrhizal fungus. So it 
would seem that in nature Orchids depend for successful development on an 
intrusive fungus, and that in some cases, at least, the characteristics of 
growth, colony formation for example, are due to some kind of symbiotic 
relationship. Furthermore, it may be assumed that the necessity for the 
overwhelming abundance of seeds produced by a single capsule finds an 
explanation in the fact that the mortality among the seeds that fail to reach 
a nidus of mycorrhizal fungi is enormous. On what other assumption, 
indeed, are we to explain the production of 1,756,444 seeds by a single 
capsule of a Maxillaria, or the exceeding rarity of many Orchid species in 
their native lands. 
Orchis maculata .—The Journal of Botany, May, 1921, contains an 
interesting article by Rev. T. Stephenson, D.D., and Mr. T. A. Stephenson, 
M.Sc. on “ The Forms of Orchis maculata.” The authors first describe the 
chief British types of the Spotted Orchis, and then discuss the nomencla¬ 
ture, especially in regard to the continental forms. The main British types 
are referred to provisionally as O. Fuchsii (including the race O. O’Kellyi) 
and O. ericetorum. Both these forms are regarded as quite distinct and 
deserving of specific rank. An accompanying plate depicts six lip types of 
the endless varieties of Orchis ericetorum, and nineteen side views of flowers 
of Marsh and Spotted Orchids, in which a fairly even gradation can be 
noticed from the stoutest forms of incarnata and purpurella, then 
praetermissa and latifolia, to the slender forms of maculata. 
