Tas. 5586. 
POLYSTACHYA PUBESCENS. 
Hairy-stemmed Polystachya. 
Nat. Ord. OrncH1pEx.—GYNANDRIA MonANDRIA. 
Gen. Char. (Vide supra, TaB. 4161.) 
Potystacnya pubescens; pseudobulbis fusiformibus 2-3-phyllis, foliis 
oblongo-lanceolatis subacutis spicis simplicibus teretibus erectis pube- 
rulis multifloris duplo brevioribus, floribus resupinatis (in genere ma- 
joribus), sepalis liberis ovatis concavis, petalis paulo minoribus obovatis 
obtusissimis, labello carinato trilobo sepalis vix sequali laciniis laterali- 
bus rotundatis, lacinid medid ovata ad apicem paululum deflex4 callo 
triangulari piloso versus basin, columna basi paulo producta. 
Errenora pubescens. Lindl. Comp. Bot. Mag. v. 2. p. 201. 
PoLystacHyA pubescens. Reichenbach fil. in Walpers’ Ann. v. 6. p. 643. 
° 
This is the prettiest species of a very unattractive genus. 
Its flowers are larger than those of any Polystachya hitherto 
discovered,—P. grandiflora, otherwise very - different, alone 
excepted,—and they are of a brighter colour than those of 
P. bracteosa,while the tall, upright, unbranched, many-flowered 
spikes are quite peculiar. 
I have little doubt that this is the Zpiphora pubescens de- 
scribed by Lindley twenty-five years ago, although the form 
of the sepals varies from that of his diagnosis, for the term 
“ acutissima” can scarcely be applied to those of the figure. 
But we are now accustomed to look for these little diver- 
gences, especially when a species—as in the present instance 
—occupies a long extent of country; for it was found first 
in Caffraria by Burchell, then in Delagoa Bay by Drege, near 
Somerset by Mrs. Barber, and on the eastern frontier of our 
South African possessions by Mr. Hutton. It flowered at 
Kew three years ago. : 
Dr. tandisy idne since separated this plant—though with 
much hesitation—from Polystachya and founded upon it his 
genus Epiphora. But more recent discoveries would seem 
JULY Ist, 1866. 
