128 Neottia tor tilts. 



white colour, garnished with a few radicles. Stem very perpendi- 

 cular, slender, sheathed at the base. Radical leaves about four or 

 six inches long, and something more than a quarter of an inch broad, 

 glabrous and acute: costa prominent. They often, in specimens 

 growing among the deep blades of grass, wither and drop off before 

 the flowers expand, so as to give the plant the appearance of being 

 leafless. Stem-leaves mere sheath-like scales. Flowers white, 

 about eighteen in number, spirally twisted and leaning one way, gar- 

 nished with an ovate, acuminate, green bract, having white membra- 

 naceous edges. Grows in low meadows and boggy grounds, often 

 among high grass, from the northern to the most southern states. 

 Flowers in June and July. It varies much in size, frequently being 

 in bloom when only eight or ten inches high, and often attaining a 

 height of more than two feet, with a very robust habit. Specimens 

 in my herbarium, received from New Orleans, are much larger 

 than the northern plant. 



Neottia properly belongs to the Ophrys nidus avis of Linnaeus, 

 or bird's nest ophrys, and which originated with Dodonaeus, «.tv,«, 

 signifying a bird's nest. Linnaeus, retained this plant with the coral- 

 lorhiza as a genus in Act. Upsal. an. 174-32, under the name in 

 question — but that genus was afterwards sunk in Ophrys. Ilaller 

 restored it under another appellation which is now established, 

 (Epipactis.) Neottia therefore being uncorrupted, was chosen by 

 Jacquin and Swartz, for their very distinct genus, some species of 

 which had been in Satyrium and some in Ophrys. 



