10. GOODYÈRA, R. Br. Rattlesnake-Plantain.
Lip sac-shaped, sessile, entire, and without callosities at base. Otherwise as Spiranthes.—Root of thick fibres, from a somewhat fleshy creeping rootstock, bearing a tuft of thickish petioled leaves, usually reticulated with white veining. Scape, spike, and the greenish-white small flowers usually glandular-downy. (Dedicated to John Goodyear, an early English botanist.)
§ 1. Lip strongly saccate-inflated and with a short spreading or recurved tip; anther short, borne on a distinct filament attached to the back of the short column, blunt; gland-bearing tip or beak of the stigma very short.
1. G. rèpens, R. Br. Small (5–8´ high) and slender; leaves ovate, more or less white-reticulated (about 1´ long); flowers several, in a loose 1-sided spike; lip with an ovate recurved tip; sepals ovate.—Woods, under evergreens, common northward and through the Alleghanies. Aug. (Eu.)
2. G. pubéscens, R. Br. Larger; leaves strongly white-reticulated; scape 6–12´ high, the numerous crowded flowers not one-sided; tip of the globular lip very short; otherwise like the preceding, and too near to it.—Rich woods, Newf. to Fla., west to Mich. and Minn.
§ 2. Lip barely saccate below, tapering and its sides involute above; anther ovate, long-pointed, borne on the base of the very short column, which is continued above the stigma into a conspicuous tapering awl-shaped gland-bearing beak.
3. G. Menzièsii, Lindl. Leaves ovate-oblong, acute (2–3´ long), less white-reticulated than the preceding, some not at all so; scape 9–12´ high; flowers rather numerous in a looser often 1-sided spike; flower-buds less pubescent, elongated-ovate and pointed; lip with the saccate-conduplicate lower portion gradually tapering into the narrow barely spreading summit.—Woods, Gaspe and Tadousac, L. Can. (J. A. Allen, Goodale); Crawford, N. H. (Miss Minns); western N. Y. to Minn., and westward. July.
11. EPIPÁCTIS, Haller.
Sepals and petals nearly equal, spreading. Lip free, deeply concave at base, narrowly constricted and somewhat jointed in the middle, the upper portion dilated and petaloid. Column short, erect. Anther sessile behind the broad truncate stigma, on a slender-jointed base; pollen-masses coarsely granular, becoming attached to the gland capping the small rounded beak of the stigma.—Stem leafy, with racemed flowers, conspicuous bracts, and ovaries reflexed at maturity. (The ancient Greek name of a plant.)
1. E. Helleborìne, Crantz. Stems 1–2° high; leaves broadly ovate (2–3´ long), pointed, plicate, the upper narrower; raceme pubescent, 30–50-flowered, 1-sided; flowers varying from light greenish-yellow to dark purple; sepals ovate-lanceolate, 3–4´´ long; petals rather smaller; lip ovate, pointed above, with a dark centre. (E. latifolia, All.)—Near Syracuse and Buffalo, N. Y.; the only known stations. (Eu.)