ORCHIDACEAE. 299 



16. EPIPACTIS R. Br. 



Tall stout herbs with fibrous roots and simple leafy stems. Leaves ovate or 

 lanceolate, plicate, clasping. Flowers leafy-bracted, in terminal racemes. Sepals 

 and petals all separate. Spur none. Lip free, sessile, broad, concave below, con- 

 stricted near the middle, the upper portion dilated and petal-like. Column short, 

 erect. Anther operculate, borne on the margin of the clinandrium, erect, ovate or 

 semiglobose, its sacs contiguous. Pollinia 2-parted, granulose, becoming attached 

 to the glandular beak of the stigma. Capsule oblong, beakless. [Greek name for 

 Helleborine.] About 10 species, widely distributed. Besides the following, 

 another occurs in the western United States. 



I. Epipactis viridiflora (Hoffm.) Reichb. Helleborine. (I. F. f. 1120.) 

 Stem 3-6 dm. high, glabrous below, pubescent above. Leaves ovate or lanceolate, 

 obtuse or acute, 4-7 cm. long; flowers greenish yellow to purple; pedicels 4-6 mm. 

 long; sepals 8-10 mm. long, lanceolate; petals narrower; lip expanded into a 

 slightly undulate apex, tapering to a point; bracts lanceolate, longer than the 

 flowers. Ont., Mass. and N. Y.; also in Europe. July-Aug. 



i 7 . GYR<DSTACHYS Pers. [SPIRANTHES Rich.] (See Appendix.) 



Erect herbs, with fleshy-fibrous or tuberous roots and slender stems or scapes, 

 leaf-bearing below or at the base. Flowers small, spurless, spiked, 1-3-rowed, the 

 spikes more or less twisted. Sepals free, or more or less coherent, or sometimes 

 united with petals into a galea. Lip sessile or clawed, concave, erect, embracing 

 the column and often adherent to it. spreading and crisped, or rarely lobed or 

 toothed at the apex, bearing minute callosities at the base. Column arched below, 

 obliquely attached to the top of the ovary. Anther without a lid, borne on the 

 back of the column, erect. Stigma ovate, prolonged into an acuminate beak, at 

 length bifid, covering the anther and stigmatic only underneath. Pollinia 2, 1 in 

 each sac, powdery. Capsule ovoid or oblong, erect. [Greek, referring to the 

 twisted spikes.] About 80 species, widely distributed in tropical and temperate 

 regions. Besides the following, two occur in the Southern States and three or four 

 on the Pacific Coast. The flowers are often fragrant. 



Flowers 3-ranked ; stems not twisted, or but slightly so. 



Sepals and petals more or less connivent into a hood. 1. G. stricta. 



Lateral sepals separate, free. 



Spike short, about 5 cm. long, 8-10 mm. thick; callosities none, or mere thicken- 

 ings of the basal margins of the lip. 2. G. plantaginea. 

 Spike 10-15 cm. long, 12-20 mm. thick; callosities nipple-shaped. 

 Spike 12-14 mm - thick; callosities hairy, straight. 



Flowers yellowish ; spike acute; lower bracts longer than the flowers. 



3. G. odiroleiica. 

 Flowers white; spike obtuse; lower bracts shorter than the flowers. 



4. G. cernna. 

 Spike 16-20 mm. thick ; callosities glabrous, incurved. 5. G. odorata. 



Flowers merely alternate, appearing secund from the spiral twisting of the stem. 



Stem leafy; lower leaves elongated, mostly persistent through the flowering season. 

 Outer sepals lanceolate ; bracts lanceolate to ovate, scarcely scanous-margined. 



6. G. praecox. 

 Outer sepals linear; bracts broadly ovate, scarious-margined. 7. G. linearis. 

 Stem a scaly scape ; leaves basal, mostly withering before the flowering season. 

 Root a single tuber ; spike about 2.5 cm. long. 8. G. Grayi. 



Root a cluster of tubers : spike 2-7 cm. long. 9. G. gracilis. 



I. Gyrostachys stricta Rydb. Hooded Ladies' Tresses. (I. F. f. 



1121.) Stem 1.5-3.5 dm. high' glabrous, leafy below, bra cted above, the inflorescence 

 rarely puberulent. Lower leaves 7-20 cm. long, linear or linear-oblanceolate; spike 

 5-10 cm. long, 8-14 mm. thick; bracts shorter than the flowers; flowers white or 

 greenish, ringent. 6-8 mm. long, spreading horizontally, very fragrant; upper sepal 

 broad, obtuse or merely acutish at the apex ; lip oblong, broad at the base, con- 

 tracted below the dilated crisped apex, thin, transparent, veined ; callo.-ities mere 

 thickenings of the basal margins of the lip. or none. It has hitherto been confused 

 with the Alaskan 67. Romanzcffiana, which has a very short spike 1-2 cm. long, 

 upper portion of the scape densely glandular, the sepals united to near the apex. 



