Tas. 6886. 
PLEUROTHALLIS Barseriana. 
Native of Tropical South America. 
Nat. Ord. OncHIDER.—Tribe Eprpenprex. 
Genus PLevRoTHALLIS, Br.; (Benth. et Hook.f. Gen. Pl. vol. iii. p. 488.) 
PLEUROTHALLIS (Apode) Barberiana ; pusilla, exspitosa, acaulis, folio elliptico- 
obovato apice rotundato crasso subtrigono costa marginibusque anguste 
incrassatis supra medio canaliculata, basi acuta in petiolum gracillimum 
angustata, racemis solitariis capillaribus nutantibus plurifloris, floribus 
pendulis gracillime pedicellatis, bracteis tubulosis, sepalis ovato-oblongis 
purpureo-maculatis caudato-acuminatis subciliolatis, petalis multi-minoribus 
ovatis acuminatis serratis purpureo-punctatis, labello tereti lineari-oblongo 
saccifurme sed solido ante unguem 2-dentato purpureo, columna angusta im- 
marginata postice carinata, anthera appendice 3-dentato coronata, 
P. Barberiana, Reichd. f. in Gard. Chron. N.S. vol. xvi. (1881), p. 6. 
There is no genus of Orchids so well deserving an 
illustrated monograph as Pleurothallis, for though wanting 
members of the gorgeous forms and colours that so many 
other genera of the order possess, it abounds in species of 
most singular habits, and of an infinite variety of forms of 
inflorescence and flowers, and the latter, though small, are 
often of gem-like beauty. They take up little space in the 
orchid-house, flower at various seasons, are easy of culti- 
vation, and evergreen in foliage. If a fraction of the 
money spent by patrons of orchid culture on gorgeous 
duplicate plates of the better known fashionable orchids 
were devoted to illustrated monographs of such genera as 
this, Stelis, Masdevallia, Restrepia, Bulbophyllum, and their 
allies, a great service would be rendered to both horticulture 
and botany. As it is, the numbers of species of these 
plants that are imported to be lost or thrown away, because 
not showy or gaudy, is very great, and when the rage for 
ao is past, the loss of any’record of them will 
felt. 
Plewrothallis Barberiana was first described by Dr. 
Reichenbach as ‘a lovely little thing, imported by Mr. 
Low, no doubt from tropical South America,’’ and was, so 
JULY Ist, 1886. 
