388 Dr Graham's List of Bare Plants. 



tooth-like erect bractoas, and several pedicels; pedicels ginglc-flowerod, 

 at first cemuous, afterwards erect. Cahjx 5-phyllous, of uniform pale 

 yellowish-green colour ; leaflets ovato-lanceolate, like the pedicels 

 minutely and sparingly glanduloso-pubescont, somewhat unequal, the 

 two innermost smaller than the others and blunt, the others subacute. 

 Gwolla twice as long as the calyx, white, orange-coloured on the in- 

 side near the base, cylindrical below, spreading above ; petals emar- 

 urinate, below cohering for a considerable way above their slender 

 claws by the inflection of their edges, forming plates projecting inter- 

 nally. Stamens 10, monadelphous, the five outer glabrous, less than 

 half the length of the others, which are glanduloso-pubescent in the 

 upper half of their filaments, and equal in length to the calyx ; an- 

 thers of both sots perfect, incumbent ; pollen yellow. Pistils longer 

 than the shorter, shorter than the longer, stamens ; germens five, ovate, 

 gradually attenuated into diverging styles, each crowned with a green 

 capitate stigma. 

 This curious species was received from Dr Fischer of St Petersburg in 

 1839, and flowered abundantly in the stove of the Boyal Botanic Gar- 

 den in May 1840, and from that time to this date, producing a long suc- 

 cession of blossoms. It is a native of mountain woods near Rio de Ja- 

 neiro. Sprengcljinhis SystemaVegetabilium, quotes Oxalis mandioccana 

 as a synonyme for his 0. aliena, and Decandolle doubts whether they are 

 different ; but, if he is right in attributing to Sprengel's plant a prostrate 

 stem, it is probable that they are. I have not seen the work of Sprengel 

 which Decandolle quotes — Neue Entdeckungen im ganzen Umfang 

 der Pflanzenkunde. The Syst. Yeget., however, is published five years 

 after it, and takes no notice of this character. The species must, at 

 the least, be nearly allied to Oxalis impatiens, — Flora Fluminensis, 

 tab. 181. I think it is identical with it. 



Peristeria cerina, var. sordida. 



-£StF. cerina ; scapo brevi pendulo, racemo dense, labelli lobo medio mar- 

 • •'■ gine crispo, columna aptera. — Lindl. in Bot. Reg. 1953. 



Var. sordida, perianthio sordide fulvo, maculate. 



Dkscription, — Pseudo-hulh ovate, compressed laterally, scarcely sulcatc, 

 sheathed at the base. Leaves (in our specimen) three from the apex, 



- lanceolate, much attenuated at the base, with about seven nerves, 

 which are very prominent below, furrowed above. Scape short, pen- 

 dulous, sheathed with scales, several (in our specijnen 5) flowered. 

 Perianth compressed laterally, brownish-yelloAV, with dark circular 

 spots, many ribbed. Sepals united, the upper with the lateral ones 

 about one-third of their length, the two lateral with each other to 

 about the middle, subacute, subeqr.al. Petals elliptical, rather shorter 

 than the sepals, and similar in colour to them. Lip with two ovate 

 acute wings at the base, extending upwards along the sides of the 

 column, where this is connected with the lateral sepals, articulated in 

 the middle, above which it is concave, blunt and sharply crenate in 

 the upper half of this portion, applied along the face of the column, 

 but when fading occasionally deflected between the sepals. Column 

 erect, half terate, v/inged along its anterior edges, toothed at its apex 

 only. Anthir-case rhomboid ; pollen masses 2, obovate, sulcate along 

 their outer sides ; gland ovate, fleshy ; stigmatic fissure narrow, trans- 

 verse. 



Tfiip, 1 tliink, must only be considered a variety of Peristeria cerina, with 

 lurid spotted flowers. The whole structure is precisely the i^amc, for 

 I conceive the absence of wings to the column mentioned by Profes* 



