edit.) v. ii. p. 4G. — Lightf. FI. Scot. v. i. p. 527. — Davies’ Welsh Hot. p. 83. — 
Itelh. FI. Cant. (3rd edit.) p. 3G7. — Serapias longifolia, Linn. Syst. Nat. ed. 12. 
v. ii. p. 593. — Sibth. FI. Oxon. p. 14. — Abbot’s FI. Bedf. p. 196. — Purt. Midi. 
FI. v. ii p. 429. ; and v. iii. p. 380. — S. longifolia, 8. y. Linn. Sp. PI. p. 1345. — 
S. latifolia, y, Ilnds. FI. Angl. (2uded. ) p. 393. — Helleborine palustris nostras, 
Ray’s Syn. p. 384. 
Localities.— I n marshy and boggy places, especially on a chalky or gravelly 
soil ; not uncommon. 
Perennial. — Flowers in July and August. 
Hoot creeping horizontally, somewhat woody, throwing out many 
long, zigzag, fleshy, simple fibres. Stem about a foot high, upright, 
simple, round, purplish, leafy ; the base surrounded by the cylin- 
drical sheath of the leaves. Lower leaves inclining to egg-shaped, 
a good deal sheathing at the base ; the upper ones spear-shaped, 
tapering to a point, somewhat keeled, striated. Flowers several, 
rather handsome, disposed in a terminal, lax, oblong, somewhat 
unilateral spike, drooping, each on a short, downy pedicel , with a 
spear-shaped braclea at its base ; the lower one of which is longer 
than the flower, the v.p ?r ones shorler. Sepals (fig. 1, b. b. b ) 
spreading, equal, green; 'i, marked with purple lines, egg-shaped, 
slightly concave. Petals spreading, egg-shaped (see fig. 3), marked 
at the base with purple lines. Lip (fig. 4, b.) longer than the se- 
pals, white, elegantly striped, and variegated with crimson ; its 
terminal lobe rounded, or heart-shaped, without a point, concave, 
the margin strongly and unequally notched and crenated, the disk 
furnished at the base with an elevated notched crest. Germen be- 
tween linear and oblong, of a darkish purple, twisted, downy, 
tapering below into a pedicel. Column (fig. 5, a.) much shorter 
than the lip, nearly cylindrical. Anikei • (fig. 5, b.) terminal, at- 
tached by its base, jointed, upright, pale yellow, broadly egg- 
shaped, with 2 cells, which open longitudinally, and deposit their 
oblong, yellowish pollen-masses on the upper edge of the glutinous 
stigma (see fig. 5, c.). 
Linnaeus gave the name of longifolia to this Epipactis, but as 
that name is more applicable to another species, the one by which 
Scopoli and Lightfoot called it, and which is more suitable, is 
now generally adopted. Mr. Hudson supposed this to be var. y. 
of Epipactis latifolia, and, from some strange mistake, he has 
asserted, that this plant, if removed into a garden, or dry soil, 
changes the following year to that species ; but the two are un- 
questionably perfectly distinct, and the different lengths of the lip, 
and the shape of the germens, will always discriminate them. See 
Hook. FI. Lond. ; and Sm. Engl. FI. 
For the specimen figured in the accompanying plate I am indebted to the kind- 
ness of W. Wilson Saunders, Esq. who gathered it in the Peat-pits at Weston- 
ou-the-Green, July 13, 1838. The flowers were rather less coloured than they are 
in general ; and in some specimens, from the same locality, they were quite white. 
This species is not uncommon in boggy places near Oxford ; as on the N. side 
of Shotover Hill ; bogs under Bullington Green ; near Stow Wood; right hand side 
the road near the 4th mile-stone going to Eusliam ; and in a wood between Church 
Hatsdborough and Freeland. 
