814 



THE ORCHID FAMILY. 



of England, Ireland, and southern and central Scotland. Fl. spring 

 and early summer. 



VIII. EPIPOGIUM. EPIPOGIUM. 



A single species, leafless like Coralroot and Neottia, but with a very 

 different spurred flower. 



stone 

 Smith 



Leafless Epipogium. Epipogium aphyllum, Sw. 

 (Fig. 979.) 



The rootstock produces a number of 

 short, thick, fleshy branches, like those 

 of the Coralroot. Stem about 6 inches 

 high, of a pale colour, with a few short, 

 sheathing bracts. Flowers 3 or 4 in the 

 raceme, rather large, of a pale yellowish 

 hue, pendulous, with the lip upwards. 

 Sepals and petals narrow-lanceolate ; 

 lip large, ovate, somewhat concave, 

 marked with raised dots on the surface, 

 with an oblong lobe on each side at its 

 base, and a thick, projecting spur under- 

 neath. Column short, with a shortly 

 stalked terminal anther. 



Among rotten leaves, in woods and 

 shady places, scattered over Europe and 

 central and Russian Asia, but every- 

 where very scarce. In Britain, disco- 

 vered only a few years since at Ted- 

 Delamere, near Bromyard, in Herefordshire, by Mrs. W. A. 

 Fl. August. 



Fig. 979. 



IX. SPIRANTH. SPIRANTHES. 



Rootstock producing a few oblong tubers or thickish fibres. Stem 

 leafy, or sometimes the flower-stems with scales only, and radical 

 leaves by its side. Flowers small, in a more or less spirally-twisted 

 spike. Sepals and petals nearly alike, erect or only spreading at the 

 tips ; the lateral sepals oblique, covering the base of the lip ; the upper 

 sepal cohering with the petals. Lip oblong, concave at the base, 



