Tab. 5403. 

 MICROSTYLIS discolor. 



Purple crisp-leaved Microstylis. 



Nat. Ord. Orchide^:. — Gynandria Monandria. 



Gen. Char. Sepala patentia, libera ; lateralis basi aequalia, ssepius breviora. 

 Petala patentia, linearis v. filiformia. Labellum patentissimum, cum columna 

 angulum rectum formans, basi excavatum, sagittatum v. auriculatum, integerri- 

 mura v. dentatum, tuberculis nullis. Columna minima, raro paululum elongata. 

 apice dentibus s. auribus duabus instructa. Ardhera bilocularis. Pollinia 4, 

 collateralia. — Herbae terreslres v. epiphyte habitu Liparis ; foliia plicatis v. mem- 

 branaceis basi raro incrassatis. Flores /terbacei, nunc flave&centes v. discolores. 

 Lindl. 



Mickostylis discolor ; caule folioso, foliis ovato-oblongis abrupte petiolatis un- 

 dulatis plicatis, labello ovato integerrimo basi cucullato, columns apice bi- 

 corni, sepalis petalisque secundis. Lindl. 



Microstylis discolor. Lindl. Gen. et Sp. Orchid, p. 20. Wight, Ic. Plant. 

 Ind. Or. t. 1631. Thwaites, En. PL Zeylan. p. 297. 



This may safely be reckoned among the most lovely of terres- 

 trial Orchideous plants, and may well rank with the " Wana 

 Rajah," or " King of the Woods " (Ancectochilus setaceus), in- 

 habiting the same country (Ceylon). The foliage is a rich 

 purple, sometimes with a green edge, plaited longitudinally and 

 much crisped at the margin ; nor are the flowers, though mi- 

 nute, wantiug in singularity of structure, when seen under the 

 microscope, and they have the property of changing colour, as 

 may be seen by our figure ; at first, in our living plant, they are 

 uniformly yellow, in age deep orange ; Dr. Lindley says of the 

 flower, " in purpureo mutabilis." The term discolor, for the spe- 

 cific name of this plant, is used perhaps in another sense than 

 that of the upper and under side of the leaves being different in 

 colour. In our plants the two surfaces are alike in hue, nor are 

 they otherwise described. It is true we find the purple leaves 

 sometimes green at the margin, but this is not a permanent 

 mark, nor noticed in print. The species seems exclusively an 



OCTOBER 1st, 1863. 



