Tas. 6844, 
CALAN THE wNara.eEnsis. 
Native of Natal. 
Nat. Ord. OxcH1pEx.—Tribe EPipENDRER. 
Genus CALANTHE, Br. ; (Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. Pl. vol. iii. p. 520.) 
CaLanTHE zatalensis; foliis petiolatis elliptico-lanceolatis acuminatis plicato- 
nervosis et corrugatis nervis 5-9, pedunculo valido, racemo plurifloro, floribus 
, pallide lilacinis, sepalis ovato-lanceolatis acuminatis petalis paullo brevioribus 
latioribusque, labelli lobis lateralibus oblongis obtusis v. fere rotundatis rectis 
curvisve, lobo intermedio late obcordato, disco verrucoso calcare gracili ovario 
longiore. 
C. natalensis, Reichb. f. in Bonplandia, 1856, p. 322; N. FE. Brown in Gard. 
Chron. vol. xxiv. (1885) ii. 78 and 136. 
C. sylvatica, var. 8. natalensis, Reichb. f. in Linnea, vol. xix. p. 374. 
Apparently a common and certainly a variable plant, in 
. various places of Eastern South Africa, from Natal itself, 
_where Mr. Sanderson and others have found it in the Bush 
Swamp at the head of the Bay, to boggy hills in the interior 
ascending to 2000 feet; and Mr. Bolus sends specimens 
from the Perie forest, near King William’s Town. 
According to drawings made from the living plant by Mr. 
Bolus, the lip varies much in shape and colour, the lateral 
lobes being sometimes almost rounded, at others narrowed 
and curved as in the figure here given. It was at first 
supposed to be a variety of the Bourbon and Mauritius 
QO. sylvatica, to which indeed Dr. Lindley referred it, but 
that plant is described as having *‘ white flowers changing 
to bright yellow without fading, so that the upper part of 
the long spike is pure white, the lowest very yellow, the 
middle of a delicate cream.” It is probably more nearly 
allied to an undescribed tropical East African species 
collected by Dr. Kirk in Johanna Island, which has much 
longer petioles, larger flowers, &c., shorter spur with a 
hooked or coiled tip. The calli on the disk of the lip are 
much larger in the Natal plant than in Mr. Bolus’ figure of 
that from Perie bush, in which they are small, and produced 
nearly to the notch of the mid-lobe of the lip. 
nov. Ist, 1886. 
