ORCHTDACE^. 



813 



broad, and sometimes slightly cordate 

 at the base. Flowers very small, in a 

 short raceme ; the lip linear, 2-cleft, with 

 2 minute teeth at its base. 



On mountain heaths, in northern and 

 Arctic Europe, Asia, and America, ex- 

 tending southward to the Alps and the 

 Caucasus. In Britain, confined to Scot- 

 land, the north of England, and some 

 parts of Ireland, where the stem is oc- 

 casionally drawn up to two or three 

 times its ordinary height. Fl. summer. 



Fig. 977. 



YII. NEOTTIA. NEOTTIA. 



A genus of very few European and north Asiatic species, distin- 

 guished from Lister a by the brown stems with sheathing scales in- 

 stead of leaves, and by a rather longer column in the flower. 



1. Bird's-nest Neottia. Neottia Nidus-avis, Linn. (Fig. 978.) 

 (Ophrys, Eng. Bot. t. 48. Listera, Brit. Fl.) 



The rootstock consists of a dense mass 

 of thick, rather succulent fibres. Stem 

 a foot high or rather more, of a pale- 

 brown colour, as well as the few loose 

 sheathing scales which replace the leaves. 

 Spike rather dense, 3 or 4 inches long, 

 with a few distant flowers below it, all 

 dingy-brown. Sepals broadly ovate, al- 

 most acute, about 2\ to 3 lines long ; 

 petals more rounded ; lip twice as long, 

 deeply cleft at the extremity into 2 ob- 

 long, diverging lobes. 



In woods, dispersed over the whole of 

 Europe, except the extreme north, ex- 

 tending eastward to the Caucasus* al- 

 though never a very common plant. 

 In Britain, it is found in many parts -p- gyg 



