Tas. 6201. 
DIURIS axa. 
Native of New South Wales. 
Nat. Ord. OrcHIpDEZ,—Tribe NEOTTIE. 
Genus Diuris, Smith; (Benth., Fl. Austral., vol. vi., p. 324). 
Divats alba; tuberibus lobatis, caule gracillimo, foliigs paucis anguste linearibus 
gramineis acuminatis concavis, floribus 2-3, sepalo dorsali late ovato obtuso 
concavo albo, lateralibus deflexis dorsali 2-3-plo longioribus anguste 
linearibus obtusis viridibus linea media fusco-purpurea, petalis sepalo dor- 
sali longioribus unguiculatis ovatis obtusis albis ungue fusco-purpureo, 
labelli lobis lateralibus subquadratis unidentatis intermedio multo majore 
_trulliformi pallide roseo, carinis 2 a basi ad medium elevatis crassiusculis 
purpureo-punctulatis, staminodiis falcatis dentatis columnam brevem vix 
superantibus. 
D. alba, Br., Prodr., p. 316; Lindl., Gen. & Sp. Orchid., p. 509; Benth, Fl. 
Austral., vol. vi., p. 325. 
The beauty of the terrestrial Orchids in the Australian 
Colonies is proverbial. In spring and summer the meadows 
are in many places enamelled with them, and it is no unusual » 
thing to find thirty or forty species in a comparatively limited 
area, comprised under the genera Diuris, Thelemytra, Praso- 
phyllum, Glossodia, and Pterostylis, and in such quantities 
that bouquets may be made of them in any number, and I feel 
assured that in no other part of the world mayso many different 
forms of Orchids be found in a given small area as in the 
Australian Colonies. Unfortunately, though easily procured 
and transported to Europe, they are cultivated there with great 
difficulty, flowering once only, if at all, and disappearing for 
ever after, a result probably due to our uncongenial seasons. 
- Of Diuris (of which the species figured is one of the least 
attractive kinds) but one species has been figured from speci- 
mens flowered in England, namely, the D. maculata (Tab. 
nost. 3156), though nearly a dozen other widely distributed 
species, some of great beauty, remain to be introduced. 
D. alba is most closely allied to, if not a slender variety 
of D. punctata, Sm., differing in the flower not being lilac and 
spotted all over. It has also a more northern range, from New 
DEcEMBER Ist, 1875, 
