This charming Orchideous plant, remarkable for the pure 
white of its blossoms, and their elegantly ciliated labellum, 
does not appear to have been known in our collections, till it 
was introduced into the garden of Dalhousie Castle by the 
Right Honourable the CounTEss of DALHOUSIE, who sent it 
from Canada. The able superintendant of that establishment, 
Mr ARCHIBALD, transmitted a flowering specimen to Dr 
GRAHAM, who forwarded it to me in the state in which it is 
represented in the left-hand figure of the accompanying plate. 
The rest of the stem and roots are copied from a beautiful 
drawing made by Mr Syme of Edinburgh, author of the inge- 
nious “ Nomenclature of Colours as adapted to the study of 
Natural History.” It flowered in the month of May, and, from 
the knowledge and skill at which we are arrived in the cultiva- 
tion of orchideous plants, it may be hoped that this delicate spe- 
cies of Habenaria will soon become a general inhabitant of our 
- collections *. 2 | 
The nearest ally of this plant is undoubtedly the Habe- 
naria (Orchis) citaris of WiLLDENOW, figured at the 42d 
plate of ANDREWS Botanical Repository: in the latter, how- 
ever, the flowers are of a deep orange colour, their lower lip far 
more thickly fringed, and the two smallest of the upper petals 
are likewise fringed, whereas in the present individual these are 
quite naked. ee | 
WILLDENOW gives this plant as a native of Pennsylvania; 
-PursH says it is found from Jersey to Carolina, not being 
aware, it would seem, that it inhabits also the British settle- 
ments of North America. The latter author arranges this spe- 
cies among those with two entire tuberous rocts, which he was 
probably led erroneously to do, from the circumstance of his 
considering CLAyTon’s plant “ O, testiculata, floribus niveis,” 
&c. as the same. Nutra, more correctly, ranks it with those 
individuals having palmated roots; and the palmated root may 
be easily conceived to run into the fasciculated one. | 
The lower and upper petals take a decidedly opposite direc-. 
tion, the three former pointing upwards, the two latter down- 
wards. 
Fig. 1. Side view of a flower. Fig. 2. Front view of a corolla,—magnified. 
* Living plants, however, were in 1822 brought by Mr Goupire from swampy 
ground in the neighbourhood of Quebec (where it appears to have been found by Wit- 
LIAM SHEPHERD, Esq. of that city); but they did not succeed in the garden at Monk.. 
' wood, near Ayr, : 
