436 THE OECHID FAMILY. [Mcdaxis. 



Stem leafy at the base. Flowers sessile. Rootstock 

 tuberous. 

 Sepals arching over the column. Lobes of the lip 



linear 13. Aceras. 



Sepals spreading. Lobes of the lip oblong . . .15. Ophrys. 

 Lip hanging, very convex or large, brown or spotted. 

 Flowers 1 or 2 only, very large. Lip inflated, above an 



inch long 16. Cypripedium. 



Flowers several. Lip convex, not above half an inch 



long 15. Ophrys. 



Lip erect or spreading, not longer than the sepals, concave 

 or flat. 

 Flowers rather large, in a loose, leafy spike. Stem 

 leafy, usually a foot high or more. 



Flowers pedicellate, drooping 4. Epipactis. 



Flowers sessile, erect 5. Cephalanthera. 



Flowers small (white or greenish-yellow). Stem seldom 

 above 6 inches high. 

 Flowers pedicellate, erect. Stem bulbous at the base. 

 Sepals broad-lanceolate, about 1 line long . . 1. Malaxis. 

 Sepals narrow-linear, fully 2 lines long . . . 2. LirARis. 

 Flowers sessile, horizontal or drooping. Stem not 

 bulbous. 

 Flowers greenish-yellow, all round the spike. Root- 

 stock tuberous . ..*... 14. Herminium. 

 Flowers greenish-white. Spike one-sided, straight. 



Rootstock creeping, fibrous . . . .10. GOODYERA. 

 Flowers white. Spike one-sided, spiral. Rootstock 



almost tuberous 9. Spiranthes. 



I. MALAXIS. BOG OKCHIS. 



A single species, distinguished as a genus from Liparis by the pro- 

 portion of the petals, and by the pollen-masses, which are club-shaped, 

 in 2 pairs, both suspended from a gland which terminates the column. 



1. M. paludosa, Sw. (fig. 981). Bog Orchis. — A delicate plant, 3 or 

 4 inches in height, the rootstock producing a small solid bulb out of 

 the ground like many exotic epiphytes, and 3 or 4 ovate or oblong 

 radical leaves. Flowers very small, of a greenish yellow, in a loose, 

 slender raceme. Sepals ovate or broadly lanceolate, about a line long, 

 two of them erect, the third turned down ; petals similar, but not half 

 the size, and spreading laterally. Lip erect, shorter than the sepals, 

 but longer than the petals, ovate, concave at the base, where it embraces 

 the very short column. 



In spongy bogs, in northern Europe and Eussian Asia, from the 

 north of France to the Arctic regions, and in some mountain districts 

 in central Europe. Spread over the greater part of Britain, but very 

 sparingly, and always difficult to find. Fl. summer, rather late. 



II. LIPARIS. LIPAEIS. 



Delicate herbs, with radical leaves, and small, greenish-yellow flowers, 

 in a terminal raceme. Sepals and petals nearly alike. Lip much 

 broader, erect or spreading and entire. Column erect or curved, with 

 a lid-like terminal anther ; the two pairs of pollen-masses attached by 

 their summits, but spreading laterally into the 2 anther-cells. 



Besides the European species, the genus contains a considerable 

 number from the warmer regions of both the New and the Old World, 

 several of them true epiphytes. 



