Cephalanthera.] orchidace^. 491 



the glabrous ovary (germen), flowers distant subracemose sessile 

 very erect, sepals and lateral petals very obtuse connivent on the 

 included very blunt and rounded lip. Serapias, L. : E. B. t. 271. 

 Epipactis, Sm. : Br. Fl. p. 417. 



In deep, shady, mostly hilly woods and dense thickets, on a calcareous soil ; 

 very rare. FL May, June. Fr. August. !(.. 



A single specimen in flower in the wood immediately at the back of Calbourne 

 New Barn, June 8th, 1844. A diligent search in the same and adjoining woods 

 failed to detect a second specimen of this fine species. Found under hazels and 

 beeches in Clarken lane, on the East side of Carisbrooke castle, several specimens, 

 1847, Miss Dennett (v. icon, color, prsestantiss. 1848). 



Plant quite glabrous in every pari. Root somewhat creeping, forming a tuft of 

 long, stout, brownish or whitish and flexuose fibres, running pretty deeply down- 

 wards. Stem 1, 2, or many from the same root, and forming clumps, erect, leafy, 

 from a foot or less to 20 inches or even 2 feet in height, greenish white, a little 

 flexuose, hard and rigid, subcylindrical below, more or less angular and com- 

 pressed higher up, ribbed with sharp prominent ridges that are rough with crys- 

 talline points, especially at and towards the summit of the stem, which presents in 

 consequence a frosted appearance, or as if coated with a saline efflorescence. 

 Leaves alternate, remote, the lowermost of all sheath-like, short, erect, obtuse and 

 inflated at top, closely embracing the stem, strongly ribbed and colourless, but 

 soon becoming brown and withering; the next in succession clasping, with short 

 sheathing bases, those still higher simply sessile, scarcely or but slightly clasping, 

 and without sheaths, bright green above, a little paler underneath, many-ribbed, 

 suberect, patent or spreading, fliit or, especially the higher one, folded, varying 

 from broadly elliptical to ovato-elliptical or elliptic-lanceolate, from about 2| to 

 3 or 4J inches in length, acute but not acuminate, a few of the lowermost and 

 shortest obtuse or rounded, the uppermost insensibly changing to narrow-lanceo- 

 late bracts, of which the inferior greatly exceed the flowers in length, the ultimate 

 bracts alone reduced to the length of the ovary or nearly so. Flowers alternate, 

 axillary and terminal, remote, sessile, very erect, usually occupying the superior 

 half of the stem, but occasionally beginning very low down, constituting a kind of 

 leafy raceme, few or sometimes very numerous, in small or starved specimens 

 sometimes with only a single flower at the summit of the stem, ovoid, rather under 

 an inch in length, exclusive of the very upright, somewhat twisted, roughish and 

 prominently and obtusely 6-ribbed ovary. Sepals white or rather cream-coloured, 

 having a manifest tinge of green or yellow on comparison with the purer white of 

 C. ensifolia, connivent, oblongo-elliptical, obtuse, 5 — 7 nerved, the median nerve 

 forming a keel at the back. Lateral petals like the sepals in form and colour, but 

 about'a third part shorter than these, equally obtuse and similarly nerved, keeled 

 and connivent; inferior petal horizontal, porrected, much shorter than the sepals 

 or lateral petals, which together either close over and conceal it entirely, or diverge 

 sufliciently to allow of its anterior segment appearing between their extremities; 

 posterior part inflated or sac-like, gibbous at the back underneath, with a deep 

 fovea or depression in the centre lengthwise, 2-lobed above, the lobes white, 

 nearly orbicular, almost joining over the column, which thus occnpies the upper 

 part of a subglobose pouch or cavity,* the bottom of which is bright yellow and 

 fulvous within, and rayed with prominent rugose and tawny lines ; anterior seg- 

 ment or lip forming a short trough-shaped concavity, its sides erect or incurved, 

 orbicular and crenulate on the margin, which is extremely obtuse, rounded and a 

 little deflexed in front, the disk golden yellow mixed with fulvous, and traversed 

 posteriorly by three boldly prominent, undulated, orange-tawny ridges. Column 

 elongated, white, slightly curved forwards and ascending, semiterete, its under or 

 anterior face plane ; 3-lobed at top, the central lobe broad, serving as s, filament 

 to carry the anther ; lateral lobes (the abortive stamens?) small, tooth-like, obtuse 



* This cavity resembles in form the corolla of Scrophularia. 



