Tas. 7314, 
MEGACLIN IUM minoutom. 
Native of Sierra Leone. 
Nat. Ord. OncnipEx.—Tribe Epipenprex. 
Genus Mzeactinium, Lindl. ; (Benth. & Hook. f. Gen. Pl. vol. iii. p- 5065.) 
Meeéaciinium minutum; pumilum, pseudobulbis confertis ovoideo-oblongis 2- 
phyllis levibus, foliis lineari-oblongis obtusis subacutis v. apice 2-denti- 
culatis, scapo brevi inclinato, spica subcernua multiflora, rachi lineari 
angusta minute lepidota crenulata brunneo-purpurea, bracteis triangn- 
laribus acutis reflexis, ovario brevissimo perianthioque : ferrugineo- 
purpureis pubescentibus, sepalis lateralibus latissime triangularibus 
acuminatis recurvis, dorsali viridi lateralibus triplo longiore oblongo 
obtuso subrecurvo, mento magno globoso, petalis subulatis, labello oblongo 
cordato obtuso recurvo pallide flavo, columna brevissima alis minutis 
incurvis. 
M. minutum, Rolfe in Kew Bulletin, No. 73 (1893), p. 5. 
The genus Megaclinium, which consists of about a dozen 
Species, is the chief African representative of the large 
Asiatic genera Bulbophyllum and Cirrhopetalum, which 
are very scantily represented on the African continent. 
It is, in fact, only separated from Bulbophyllum by the 
remarkable dilatation of the rachis of the spike, which 
attams a much greater development in M. maximum, 
Lindl. (Tab. 4028), and an extreme dilatation in M. pur- 
puratum, Lindl. (Tab. 5936). Dr. Reichenbach, not 
without reason, regarded Megaclinium as a section of 
Bulbophyllum, as he did Cirrhopetalum ; but in Botany, as 
in other biological sciences, if objective characters, though 
of little morphological value, which distinguish whole 
groups, are not taken into account in the formation of 
genera, of Monocotyledons especially, the result would be 
chaotic agglomerations of forms under a common generic 
name. : 
M. minutum was discovered on the top of the Sugarloaf 
Hill, Sierra Leone, at about 3000 ft. elevation, by G. F. 
Scott Elliott, Esq., M.A., F.L.S., Naturalist to the Anglo- 
SEPTEMBER Ist, 1893. 
