622 MR. ARTHUR BENNETT ON LIPARIS L(ESELII IN NORFOLK. 
American botanists, Dr. Kennedy and Mr. Fernald, of the 
Gray Herbarium, and I asked them if this had been noticed in 
America. They replied “No.” Dr. Kennedy said he could 
vouch for the Liparis having appeared seven years in succession, 
and about as abundant each year at Willoughby, though both 
agreed that some of the North American Orchids were subject 
to this extraordinary disappearance for a time, and reappearance. 
No reasonable explanation seems to have yet been given for 
it, though we have many theories. A suggestion is all I have 
to offer, and is this ; it is what would be called a short- 
lived perennial, it is possible that the year it is so abundant 
it seeds freely, the plants die, the seed is floated about in 
winter until the water begins to run off the land in May, then 
the seeds settle down and grow. It is well known that Orchid 
seeds often take many years to come up, and before flowering. 
The water level is high, perhaps, for some years, then comes 
a dry year (like 1883-4), and the plant is exposed to view. At 
Ranworth it certainly would not have been easy to get on the 
locality without water-boots in any ordinary year, but that year 
the spongy bog was much drier, though even then we did not 
dare to stand long in one place ; one wants to live near the 
plant and study it year by year. An excellent account of its 
development will be found in Crepin’s ‘Notes plantes rare ou 
critique de la Belgique,’ Fas. 5, p. 102 (1865) ; but it is too long 
to quote here. In 1848 Mr. G. S. Gibson and three others were 
unable to find Liparis on Bunvell and Bottisham Fens, after several 
hours’ search (‘ Phytologist,’ 309 [1848]). This will serve to show 
how soon after drainage (about 1840) the plant disappears, yet in 
1835 “The number of Sturmia (Liparis) Lceselii in Burwell Fen 
was enormous.” Power to Babington, quoted in ‘Journal of Life,’ 
p. 40 (1897). 
Liparis seems extinct in Huntingdonshire with the Great 
Copper Butterfly, but may still be found in Suffolk, Norfolk and 
Cambridge, but still should be gathered sparingly whenever found ; 
many of our southern Orchids are becoming very rare, such as the 
Monkey, Military, and Lizard Orchids, and it is found absolutely 
necessary to keep their exact localities secret ; it is strange that 
the last specimen of the Lizard Orchid gathered was found in 
a child’s nosegay brought to a local llower show at Wye, in Kent. 
