Tab. 4161 



POLYSTACHYA bracteosa. 



Bracteated Polystachya. 



Nat. Ord. Orchide^. — G^nandria Monandbia. 

 POLYSTACHYA. (Vide supra Tab. 2,107.) 



Polystachya bracteosa; pseudo-bulbis subrotundis compressis aggre- 

 gatis, folio unico petiolato oblongo-ovato acuto, racemo e summitate 

 petioli nutanti pubescente pedunculoque bracteato, bracteis (infima 

 foliacea) lanceolatis acuminatis concavis inferioribus florem aequantibus 

 v. superantibus, petalis obovato-oblongis glabris, labello lato-oblongo 

 revoluto medio longitudinaliter villoso lobo medio subrotundo. 



Polystachya bracteosa. Lindl. in Bot. Reg. Misc. n. 102. 



A native of Sierra Leone. Drawn from the Woburn Collec- 

 tion of Orchidece in the Royal Botanic Gardens of Kew, 

 to which it was communicated by Mr. Whitfield from Sierra 

 Leone. Dr. Lindley observes, it is well distinguished by its 

 downy flowers, tapering squarrose bracts, which extend down 

 the peduncle, the lowermost one being very large and leaf- 

 like, at least in our flowering specimen. 



Descr. Pseudo-bulbs about an inch in diameter, suborbi- 

 cular, singularly compressed, and the old ones, especially, 

 very uneven on the surface : — from the summit arises a stout 

 petiole, an inch or an inch and a half long, bearing a solitary, 

 oblong-ovate, acute, somewhat membranaceo-coriaceous leaf, 

 with a few longitudinal lines or nerves. From the base of 

 the leaf, in a cleft at the summit of the petiole, arises the 

 peduncle, bearing, at its origin, a very large, leafy bractea, 

 and other smaller, membranaceous, but green, ones above it ; 

 these are concave, lanceolate, and much acuminate. Raceme 

 many-flowered, drooping, downy. Flowers dull orange-yellow, 

 bracteated : bracteas similar to those of the peduncle ; the 

 lower ones as long as the flowers ; the upper ones pubescent. 

 Sepals downy, erecto-patent ; upper one oblong-lanceolate; 

 lateral ones broadly rotundato-ovate, the base decurrent on 



