128 Neottia tortilis.
white colour, garnished with a few radicles. Stem very perpendicular,
slender, sheathed at the base. Radical leaves about four or
six inches long, and something more than a quarter of an inch broad,
glabrous and acute: costa prominent. They often, in specimens
growing among the deep blades of grass, wither and drop off before
the flowers expand, so as to give the plant the appearance of being
leafless. Stem-leaves mere sheath-like scales. Flowers white,
about eighteen in number, spirally twisted and leaning one way, garnished
with an ovate, acuminate, green bract, having white membranaceous
edges. Grows in low meadows and boggy grounds, often
among high grass, from the northern to the most southern states.
Flowers in June and July. It varies much in size, frequently being in
bloom when only eight or ten inches high, and often attaining a height
of more than two feet, with a very robust habit. Specimens in my
herbarium, received from New Orleans, are much larger than the
northern plant.
Neottia properly belongs to the Ophrys nidus avis of Linnseus, or
bird’s nest ophrys, and which originated with Dodonseus, utrVx,
signifying a bird’s nest. Linnaeus, retained this plant with the coral-
lorhiza as a genus in Act. Upsal. an. 174-32, under the name
in question—but that genus was afterwards sunk in Ophrys. Haller
restored it under another appellation which is now established,
(Epipactis.) Neottia therefore being uncorrupted, was chosen by
Jacquin and Swartz, for their very distinct genus, some species of
which had been in Satyrium and some in Ophrys.
Neottia tortilis. 129
The present species of this genus as it now stands, is one of the
commonest throughout the Union, and attracts attention by the singularity
of its spiral spike of white flowers.
The figure, (No. 3.) represents the plant of its common size, cut
apart at the mark +.