290 
style, terminated by a globose, externally trilobed, yellowish stigma. 
The stamens were sessile, with globose subdidymous anthers, opening 
by two narrow fissures or pores at the apex. From the description 
of the plant as given by Dr. Beccari, it is the opinion of English 
botanists that it will turn out to be a species of Brachyspatha. 
§ 292. The Smallest Orchid Known.—Closely following the 
account of the discovery of the largest Aroid, comes the news of the 
rediscovery of the smallest orchid known to science. Baron Von 
Mueller states, in a recent letter, that more than twenty years ago, 
he was shown a very minute creeping orchid, from the vicinity of 
Port Jackson, East Australia, and that the plant was highly remark- 
able for its extremely small disk-like leaves. It was discovered by 
the Rev. Robert King, of New South Wales, and by him named 
Bolbophyllum moniliforme The plant was lost sight of until very 
recently, when it was rediscovered by a Mr. Fawcett on the Rich- 
mond river. The leaves of this pigmy orchid are sessile on acreep- 
ing rhizome, and often form bead-like stems—whence the specific 
name. The leaves are orbicular, flat, horizontal, and only one-eighth 
or one-sixth of an inch in diameter! Thus this orchid has the 
smallest leaves of any species in the whole order. Indeed, an ob- 
server, seeing the plant creeping among mosses, might readily take 
it for one of the Hepatic. The small red flowers are produced 
singly on peduncles hardly longer than the leaves, and measure only 
one-sixth of an inch, “While thus,” says Baron Von Mueller, 
“ East Australia possesses the dwarfest of all oghids, it counts among 
its plants also the one with the minutest flower, namely, Oderonia 
palmicola,” 
§ 293. Old Egyptain Vegetation.—In the Journal of Botany 
for February an abstract is given of an interesting paper by the late 
Alexander Braun on an examination of the vegetable remains in the 
Egyptian Museum in Berlin. One of the most attractive questions 
leading to this examination was whether the vegetable remains, 
nearly five thousand years old, presented any important differences 
from present forms of the same species. It seems, however, that, 
with the exception of a few unimportant variations from the present 
forms of the fruits of the pomegranate, no actual difference exists 
between the ancient and modern specimens of the same species. 
Prof. Braun seems to have been led to make the examination through 
the remarkable discovery of Prof. Heer, of Zurich, that the flax 
found in the lake dwellings does not belong to the species now culti- 
vated (Linum usitatissmum) but the Linum angustifolium, Huds., 
which is not now cultivated, although a native of the Mediterranean 
region, France, and Britain. That flax was cultivated in great 
quantities, and used in many ways in Egypt, is well known. Mummy 
cloths are always of linen, and priests were compelled to wear linen 
garments. Unger found a thread of flax in a brick from the pyramid 
of Daschur by which the cultivation of this plant is carried back 
4,000 before Christ. What particular species of Linum was culti- — 
vated in Egypt is a point yet to be settled. Linum angustifolium 
has fruits and seeds only half the size of those of Z. usttatissmum, so 
that the two are easily distinguished. ge pee 
