VI 

 EPIPACTIS 



HELLEBORINE 



Epipactis viridiflora (HofFm.) Reichb. (Plate XXXV.) 



Of the ten species of Epipactis or Helleborine that grow 

 in Europe only two are found in the United States. One 

 grows in the Western States, and one in the East. The 

 Eastern species is Epipactis viridiflora. It is common in 

 Europe, but so rare in this country that it has been reported 

 only from near Toronto in Ontario, and from Syracuse and 

 Buffalo in New York. 



It must always be remembered, however, when a flowei 

 is reported from very few places, that the writers of manuals 

 take their localities only from reliable printed florae of states, 

 or from herbarium specimens. Therefore, unless a botanist 

 has noticed it, it cannot technically exist. Doubtless there 

 are waste places of beauty the whole country over where the 

 Helleborine may grow with no one to notice it save hunters 

 or fishermen. That it is found near large cities means rather 

 that botanists live in the cities and journey on holidays a 

 little way forth in the country with their botany boxes, and 

 collect the nearest specimens, and not that it has a special 

 tendency to haunt the homes of men. 



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