Listera.] orchidace^e. 487 



with sheathing: pointed bvHcleas, their surface crystalline and shining. Leaves 

 radical, ovato-lanceolate, glabrous, acute, ribbed. Flowers in a close twisted 

 spike mostly inclining; downwards, greenish white, fragrant. * Bracteas lanceo- 

 late, green edged with white. Calyx about as long as the lip, the base of which 

 is enclosed by the two lower sepals, the uppermost incumbent on ihe corolla. 

 Petals small, linear, hairy, closely applied to the upper calyx-segment. Column 

 wingless, incumbent on the stigma, which is cloven in front, both enclosed by the 

 base of the caniculate lip of the corolla, which is glandular, crenate and a little 

 spreading at its anterior extremity ; pollen-masses pale yellow, pear-shaped, deeply 

 cloven. Germen twisted, hairy. 



VI. LiSTEEA, R. Br. 



" Perianth ringent ; lip deflexed, 2-lobed. Stigma transverse, 

 rostellate ; rostellum elongated, entire, acute, with a minute glo- 

 bose appendage at its somewhat reflexed apex ; column very short." 

 Bab. Man. 



1. L. ovata, R. Br. Tway Blade. " Stem with only 2 ovato- 

 elliptical opposite leaves, column of fructification with a crest in 

 which the anther is placed." — Br. Fl. p. 417. Ophrys, L. : E. B. 

 t. 1548. 



In moist woods, groves, thickets, copses, and under trees in damp shady pas- 

 tures ; extremely common. Fl. May — June. i^r. June. If.. 



E. Med. — Plentiful in Quarr copse, Apley wood, and mosl other places about 

 Ryde. Common at East-end. In Appuldurcombe park, 1845. 



W. Med. — Abundant in Tult copse, Gatcombe, 1845. Woods about Cowes. 

 Calbourne New Barn Hummet, 1845. 



Root a bundle of simple, chordiform, flexuose, downy fibres, of a pale reddish 

 brown, sometimes a little creeping. Stem solitary, erect, from a fool or under to 

 18 or 20 inches high, stout, whitish, glabrous and somev\hat angular as high as 

 the origin of the leaves ; beyond that point much more slender, rounded, dull 

 green and grayish, with short, spreading, viscid, glandulose pubescence, quite 

 leafless, except one or two scale-like acuminate bracts unaccompanied by flowers 

 at some distance from the spike. Leaves 2 (rarely 3), opposite, below the middle 

 of the stem, with which they are closely incorporated at their clasping bases, flat 

 and spreading, bright green above, paler beneath, often somewhat shining and 

 clammy, quite glabrous, varying in shape from ovato-elliptical to nearly orbicular, 

 often 5 or 6 inches in length, often very obtuse and rounded, at other times pointed 

 or even acute, with several strongly depressed converging nerves and intermediate 

 smaller ones, the midrib ending in a soft, mucronate, withering point. Flowers 

 numerous, in a very loose, cylindrical, tapering, erect spike, small, green, the tip 

 paler and more yellowish. Pedicels patent, twisled, glanduloso-pubescent, each 

 from the axil of a green, concave, acute or acuminate, ovate bract, mostly shorter 

 than the pedicel. Sepals ovate, concave, blunlish and connivent, single-nerved 

 and bluntly keeled. Two lateral petals ligulate, nearly the length of the sepals, 

 slightly pointed, purple-edged, faintly 1-nerved ; lower petal (lip) straight, flat and 

 pendant, either perpendicularly or beyond that line backwards, of an oblong shape, 

 4 or 5 lines in length, very deeply cleft into 2 ligulate, parallel or slightly diverg- 

 ing, obtuse segments ; the undivided part of the lip traversed by a central ridge or 

 linear gland, which terminates between the segments in a minute round point; 

 base of the lip slightly constricted and folded inwards, not lobed or divided. 

 Column very short, its incumbent summit forming a hood to the horizontal anther- 

 cell, which is attached below the centre of the former ; pollen-masses pale yellow. 



* To me this plant is almost inodorous, as is also the much rarer S. cEstimlis. 



