Tab. 7 J 86. 

 STENOGLOTTIS longifolta. 



Native of Natal. 



Nat. Ord. Orciiide^. — Tribe Ophryde;l\ 

 Genus Stenoglottis, Lindl.; (Bentk. & Hook.f. Gen. PI. vol. iii. p. 622.) 



Stenoglottis longifolia; foliis numerosis ensiformibus acuminatis marginibus 

 undulatis concoloribus, v. nigromaculatis scapo robusto bracteis numerosis 

 lanceolatis dorso purpureo maculatis instructo, spica multiflora, bracteis 

 ovato-lanceolatis acuminatis recurvis herbaceis ovario brevioribus, sepalis 

 late ovatis obtusis, petalis minoribus ei-osis, labello lineari apicem versus 

 trifido lobis sxibulatis intermedio paullo longiore lateralibus bifidis. 



S. fimbriata, Lindl. var. ; N. E. Br. in Gard. Chron. 1889, v. ii. p. 438. 



The genus Stenoglottis has hitherto been represented by 

 a single species, S. fimbriata, Lindl. (Tab. 5872), also a 

 native of Natal, with much shorter oblong leaves narrowed 

 at the base and blotched with black, a very slender scape 

 with few erect narrow bracts, and much fewer and smaller 

 more secund flowers, the lateral lobes of the lip of which 

 are entire. Notwithstanding these differences, it is 

 suggested to me by Mr. N. E. Brown, who has carefully 

 studied the plant of both species in the Gardens, that they 

 may prove forms of one, for disregarding the great differ- 

 ence in size, the principal difference between them is in 

 the form of the leaves. Mr. Watson, on the other hand, who 

 has both species under cultivation, at Kew, informs 

 me that they keep quite distinct. In the Genera 

 Plantarum (vol. iii. p. 622), and in the Journal of the 

 Linnasan Society (vol. xviii. p. 533), Stenoglottis is regarded 

 by Bentham as being perhaps too nearly allied to Her- 

 mmium, assuming that the glands of the poilinia are naked 

 as in that genus ; but in both S. fimbriata and longifolia, 

 the glands, which are very minute, appear to me to be 

 contained in pouches formed by folds of the rostellum. If 

 this is so, the position of the genus is not in the subtribe 

 Habenarieai, but in Ophrydeas. This character of the naked 

 or pouched glands of the poilinia is often very difficult of 



July 1st, 189]. 



