ORCHIDS OF MADAGASCAR. 521 



simo calceiformi carnoso ; calcare quam ovarium inulto breviore, 

 crasso obtuso bisaccato ; columna brevissima ; anthera angusta ; 

 stigmate oblongo lato. 



Madagascar: N. Betsileo in paludibus, Jan. 1881, Hildebrandt 

 no. 3845 ! in Herb. Brit. Mm. 



This is a very striking plant, with a stiff stem 20 inches in 

 height, covered loosely with a number of narrow acuminate 

 ensiform leaves all similar, the lower ones 2 inches in length. 

 The spike of rather small fleshy flowers is 6 inches long, quite 

 lax ; the bracts are always erect, ovate-lanceolate, J inch long. 

 The dorsal sepal is club-shaped, narrow at the base and almost 

 cylindrical, but dilating into a grooved knob at the end. The 

 lateral sepals are broader, oblong, and fleshy, with a faint keel 

 running up into a short, blunt, conical process at the apex, and 

 the margins so much reflexed on the underside as almost to meet. 

 The petals are thinner in texture and much shorter than the 

 sepals, ovate ; they are quite concealed by the sepal. The lip is 

 oblong, about as long as the sepals, very blunt, and the edges 

 curved up so as to resemble a shoe ; the spur is short and thick, 

 2 lines long, only obscurely bisaccate at apex. The column is 

 unusually short and thick, the anther rather narrow, and pollinia 

 somewhat laterally flattened. The ovary is glabrous, 6 lines long. 



DlSA. 



Disa incarnata, Lindley, Gen. Sf Sp. Orch. PL p. 348; 

 Kranzlin, Verhand. Bremen, vol. vii. p. 263. 



Imerina, Deans Cowan ! ; Central Madagascar, Baron ! in Herb. 

 Brit. Mtis. ; Antananarivo, Mutenberg. 



D. Eutenberoiana, Kranzlin, Verhand. Bremen, vii. p. 262— 

 Antananarivo, Butenberg — I have not seen. 



Platvcoryne. 

 An endemic genus. 



P. Pervillei, Beichenbach fil. in Bonplandia, 1855, p. 212. 



Ambongo, Perville ! no. 593 in Herb. Kew. 



This plant has a rather slender stem 2 feet in height, with 

 about 7 scattered narrow acute leaves on the stem, an inch in 

 length, and a small rather lax raceme of about 6 flowers. The 

 bracts are loose and almost hooded, \ an inch long, a little shorter 

 than the ovary. The dorsal sepal is 3 lines long. 



