THE ORCHIDS OF NEW ENGLAND, 65 
ons, there is a furrow or median line on the lip, corresponding 
probably to the nectar-secreting groove in Listera, and as the 
edges of the lip curve up at the sides, an insect would have but 
one easy mode of entrance offered, and in crawling up this pas- 
sage-way would be led directly under the anther. Barton gives 
a fairly good plate of this Liparis, calling it Malaxis longifolia, 
the Long-leaved Malaxis, and describes the root as “a roundish 
bulb, sending off a few radicles and a large offset, the germ of 
a new plant.” England produces a smaller species, and this, 
together with Lzstera ovata, is considered by Grant Allen to 
be degenerating like H. viridis. 
Our more common species, L. /liz- 
folia, Barton’s Lily-leaved Malaxis, with 
brownish-purple, larger-lipped flowers, 
follows L. Leselit in the course of a 
week or so. This species grows as far 
south as Georgia; ZL. Lwselii ranges 
from New England and the Middle 
States to Wisconsin and above the’ 
50th parallel. I was quite impressed by 
the diminutive size of Listera cordata 
until I opened an herbarium containing 
among its Orchids a row of fully devel- 
oped plants related to Liparis (Walaxis 
paludosa from Scotland), few of them 
over an inch high. 
Some pasture, threaded by sluggish 
streams, or some wet road-side, will, 
about the middle of June, afford the sas sia 
next Orchid and the first of the genus 
Spiranthes or Ladies’ Tresses; S. latifolia, the Broad-leaved 
Spiranthes. The small, white blossoms, climbing spirally up 
their spike, and suggesting to a highly imaginative person a 
lock of hair, would seem to have originated the popular name; 
5 
