Tas. 5936, 
MEGACLIN IUM purpPuratum. 
Native of Western Tropical Africa. 
Nat. Ord, Orcnipex,—Tribe DenprosieR. 
Genus Mecactixium, Lindl. ; (Endl. Gen. Plant., 191). 
MEGACLINIUM purpuratum ; pseudobulbo obtuse costato, foliis binis lineari- 
oblongis obtusis, rachi ensiformi cuspidato margine undulato curvato, 
bracteis late oblongis purpureo crebre conspersis marginibus flavo- 
viridibus, floribus pallide flavo-virescentibus purpureo conspersis, sepalis 
consimilibus late ovatis aristato acuminatis recurvis, petalis falcato- 
linearibus, labello ovato obtuso recurvo marginibus infra medium 
denticulatis. 
MEGAcLINIUM purpuratum, Lindl. in Journ. Linn. Soc., vol. vi. p. 128, 
The singular genus Megaclinium, is apparently confined to 
tropical Africa, whence four described species are known to 
me: viz., the original WM. falcatum, Lindl., introduced in 
1822, and figured in the Botanical Register (t. 989), M. 
maximum, Lindl. (Tab. nost. 4028); M. orypterum, Lindl., 
with very acutely angled pseudo-bulbs, but which is in other 
respects so very near this, that I suspect they may prove to 
be varieties of one plant; all these are from Sierra Leone, 
Besides these, Reichenbach, who with good reason refers the 
genus to a section of Bolbophyllum (in Walper’s Annales, 
vol. vi. p. 257), enumerates J. colubrinum, Rchb. f. (native 
country unknown), J/. velutinum, Lindl., from Cape Coast 
Castle, and MW. Bufo, Lindl., from Sierra Leone; to these 
must be added from the Hookerian Herbarium a small 
Natal species, WM. Sandersoni, (Oliv. mss.) ; and two Zambesi 
species, one (MZ. Melleri, Hk. f.), with loose spathaceous bracts 
on the scape, and (when dry) three to five winged pseudo-bulbs, 
NOVEMBER lst, 1871, 
