18 CXXXIII. ORCHIDEZ (ROLFE). [Microstylis. 
Polynesia, and one in Australia. Besides the two species here enumerated, there is 
another African one in the Comoro Islands. 
Flowers yellow ; lip cuneate, emarginate . : , Ll. ML. prorepens. 
Flowers purple; lip obcordate-orbicular . : ; . 2. M. stelidostachya. 
1. M. prorepens, Kränzl. in Engl. Jahrb. xvii. 48. Rhizome 
creeping ; flowering stems bearing sheaths, increasing in size upwards, 
above them 3-leaved. Leaves ovate-oblong, acute, shortly petioled. 
Scapes bearing a few narrowly linear, acuminate sheaths; spikes con- 
gested, many-flowered. Bracts ovate, very acuminate, almost equalling 
the ovary. Flowers minute, yellow. Dorsal sepal ligulate, acute ; 
lateral ones ovate-oblong, subacute, broader than the dorsal. Petals 
linear from an ovate base, acute, equalling the sepals. Lip cuneate, 
emarginate; base embracing the short column; disc bearing a pilose 
cushion. 
Upper Guinea. Sierra Leone; Sugarloaf Mountain, near Freetown; on wet 
rocks, Preuss. 
Only known to me from the original description. 
2. M. stelidostachya, Reichb. f. Otia Bot. Hamb. ii. 118. Stems 
somewhat tufted, suberect, 2—34 in. high, bearing several loose sheaths, 
diphyllous. Leaves ovate, subacute, 14-2} in. long, 3-14 in. broad. 
Scapes 5-8 in. high, many-flowered. Bracts triangular-ovate, acumi- 
nate, ł to 1 lin. long. Dorsal sepal oblong, obtuse, 14 lin. long; lateral 
ones ovate-oblong, obtuse, a little shorter than the dorsal one. Petals 
linear-lanceolate, acute, 1} lin. long. Lip broadly obcordate-orbicular, 
1} lin. long; apical lobes rounded, entire; dise with a pair of small 
scabrid or minutely tuberculate areas near the base, and outside the 
three central, scarcely thickened nerves. Column 4 lin. long.—Ridl. 
in Journ. Linn. Soe. xxiv. 347. 
Lower Guinea. Princes Island, Mann, 1151! 
The flowers are purplish in the dried state. 
3. ORESTIA, Ridl. in Journ. Linn. Soc. xxiv. 197. 
Sepals spreading, free, the central ones falcate. Petals spreading, 
narrower than the sepals. Lip inferior, shorter than the sepals, 
broadly obovate, pulvinate in the centre. Column elongate, terete, 
incurved, slightly narrowed upwards; anther terminal, with very short 
filament, adnate to the rostellum; cells widely diverging and lateral, 
dehiscing early ; pollinia 2 in each cell, inappendiculate, elliptical, curved, 
waxy, yellow. Stigma deeply concave. Rostellum thin, nearly trun- 
cate, diverging laterally into a broad lobe on either side.—A terres- 
trial herb, with slender erect stem. Leaves 2, membranous, continuous 
with the sheath. Flowers small, in a lax raceme. Bracts small and 
narrow. 
A very remarkable endemic monotype, with the habit and general appearance of 
some Microstylis or Liparis, but remarkably different in the structure of the column. 
Mr. Ridley refers it to Neottiee, with which, however, I am unable to trace any 
affinity. At first I suspected it might be an abnormal state of some Liparis. 
