TAR, 7221. 
NEOBENTHAMIA agractms. 
Native of Eastern Tropical Africa. 
Nat. Ord. OrcuipEx.—Tribe VanpEx. 
Genus Nropentuamia, Rolfe in Gard. Chron. 1891, vol. ii. p. 272. 
NEoBENTHAMIA gracilis; terrestris, caulibus elongatis ramosis flexuosis sar- 
mentosis foliosis, foliis lineari-elongatis acuminatis basi vaginantibus 
recurvis, floribus in racemum brevem strictum terminalem breviter pedun- 
culatum dispositis patentibus albis longe pedicellatis, bracteis parvis 
setaceis, perianthii campanulati sepalis petalisque latioribus oblongis 
obtusis apicibus recurvis, labello a basi patente sepalis paullo longiore 
sessili obovato-oblongo subtruncato marginibus crispatis, disco medio 
aureo et maculis rubris 2-seriatim dispositis ornato basi puberulo, 
columna breviuscula crassa mutica, clinandrio parvo, anthera subhemi- 
spherica“ umbonata, polliniis 2 globosis inequaliter 2-fidis (v. 4 hemi- 
sphericis uno cujusvis paris minore) glandula rotundata squameformi 
breviter stipitatis. 
N. gracilis, Rolfe, l.c. 
A very singular terrestrial orchid, differing much in 
habit from any hitherto described, though clearly I think 
belonging to the tribe Vandex, subtribe Cymbidex, as Mr. 
Rolfe has determined. The long tufted stems, which attain 
four feet, are branched sparingly and are clothed with leaves 
almost throughout with grassy flaccid leaves. They do not 
root but apparently rest for support on neighbouring bushes, 
for under cultivation they require to be tied to a stake. 
The leaves are subdistichous, and droop, much as in some 
narrow-leaved Cymbidia, and the raceme is terminal as in 
that genus, from which Neobenthamia differs conspicuously 
in the shorter hardly spreading perianth and the lip not 
being erect, nor embracing the column, but spreading from 
the base and slightly recurved beyond the middle. The 
position of the genus in the ‘‘ Genera Plantarum” should 
I think be next to Cyperorchis, a genus with difficulty 
distinguishable from Cymbidium, but of which the long 
perianth segments do not spread except at the tips. : 
In naming this plant Neobenthamia, Mr. Rolfe has paid 
a well-merited tribute to the excellency of my late colleague 
Fesruary Ist, 1892. 
