﻿410 ON THE BOTANY OF JAPAN. 



0. latifolia. It was long since discovered on the northwest coast of America, and 

 has lately been detected in the northern part of Japan. 



The fact perhaps is, that species of Orchidacece are not so much restricted in range 

 as fastidious in their requirements, establishing themselves only where all the con- 

 ditions of their well-being are very exactly fulfilled. Excepting those which grow in 

 bogs, and only a part of these, the Orchideous plants of the United States are generally 

 sparser or rarer in individuals than those of other families, or abound only in certain 

 favored localities. From my own experience, I should judge that very few botanists 

 have ever met with a dozen living individuals, in any one year, of Liparis liliifolia, 

 Tipularia discolor, Calypso borealis, Mkrostylis monophyllos, or even of Cypripediiim 

 arietimim, or Platanthera orbiculata, &c. And if any of our species have once ranged 

 continuously across this continent and beyond, we can readily conceive that the present 

 differences in the character of the climate of the two sides would surely tend to oblit- 

 erate them from the one or the other, while those adapted to survive in the Eastern 

 United States would equally flourish in the similar climate of Japan. 



Our Aplectrum hycmale, Nutt, of the Atlantic United States, also has its analogue in 

 Japan, in the form of an interesting new species of Dr. Lindley's recent genus Oreorchis. 

 Such poor flowers as I possess of Aplectrum certainly show no caudicle and gland to 

 the pollen-masses, which are obliquely collateral ; but in other characters, as in habit, 

 Oreorchis and Aplectrum are much alike. Dr. Lindley has compared the Japan plant 

 with the two Himalayan species, and with the very rare O. patens of Siberia (the par- 

 ticular habitat of which is apparently unknown), and has kindly indicated to me the 

 characters which distinguish it from the latter.* 



The detection of Platanthera tipuloides at the northern extremity of Japan gives 

 occasion for some emendation of the specific character. Only the lower bracts exceed, 

 or even equal, the " greenish-purple " flowers ; the fleshy petals are rather oblong-linear 

 than ovate, and the labellum, of similar texture, is still narrower. Thunberg's Orchis 

 Japonica is not a Platanthera, but a Habenaria.'f His Serapias falcata is, as I suppose, 



* Oreorchis lancifolia (sp. nov.) : folio late lanceolato ; vaginis scapi oblique truncatis appressis ; 

 racemo multifloro laxo ; labeUi unguiculati lobo intermedio apice crispo basi cuneafo, lamellis 2 contiguis line- 

 aribus quam lobis lateralibus paullo brevioribus. Hakodadi. 



t Habenaria Japonica : caule foHoso f - 2-pedali ; foliis inferioribus ovalibus oblongisve obtusis, superi- 

 oribus bracteisque sensim angustioribus lanceolatis acutis ; spica elongato-oblonga multiflora ; ovai-io sessili 

 apice angustato ; floribus albis ; sepalis lato-ovatis subconformibus ; petalis oblongo-Iinearibus iminerviis ; labello 

 angustissime lineari crasso-camoso integerrimo demum elongate filiformi dependente calcare gracili vis clavato 

 apice acute 2 - 3-plo breviore ; retinaculo amplo lineari-oblongo squamceformi. Hakodadi. 



