This rare species is a native of Sierra Leone, where it was 

 found by Afzelius many years since. It was afterwards 

 introduced with a brief character into Persoon's Synopsis, 

 and from that time remained unknown, until it was im- 

 ported last year by Messrs. Loddiges, in whose stove it 

 flowered in August. 



It offers an excellent illustration of the characters of the 

 curious genus Hahenaria, as limited in the genera and species 

 o/" Orchideous plants, and will shew the student in a distinct 

 manner what the points are in which it differs from the 

 genus Platanthera, whither I refer our British Butterfly 

 Orchis, to which this bears a striking resemblance. In order 

 to make this clear, attention should be paid to the magnified 

 figure of a column extracted from the flower, and placed at 

 the right hand corner of the accompanying plate. In this 

 the lower white portion to the left is the column, with 

 an auricle or sterile stamen at its upper corner to the right. 

 Immediately proceeding from this in a curved direction 

 upwards are the white stigmatic canals, in whose hollow the 

 lengthened bases of the anther are placed when in their 

 natural position. The upper yellow body which divides 

 downw^ards into two legs is the anther ; the legs are its lobes, 

 which lengthen at their lower end and fit into the stigmatic 

 canals, enclosing the pollen masses in their upper portion, 

 and in their lower keeping the caudicle of the pollen in such 

 a position that it must inevitably come in contact with the 

 gland which once formed the tip of the stigmatic canal, but 

 which eventually separates from the latter, adhering to the 

 caudicle, as is seen in the thread-shaped processes, which in 

 the figure rise up from the anther-bases. All these parts 

 equally exist in the genus Platanthera. But in Hahenaria 

 we find an addition of two greenish horns, which spring 

 from the lower edge of the stigma, skirting the orifice of the 

 spur, and finally project beyond the latter, as is seen in the 

 figure. These horns, which are considered to be processes 

 of the stigma, do not occur in Platanthera, unless in a very 

 rudimentary state, while in Hahenaria they are always so 

 fully and obviously developed as to form conspicuous objects, 

 even when the flowers are dried. 



