an undescribed Genus of Orchideous Plants. 295 
supra stigma dilabentibus conflate, pallid’ straminez; granule ultimze 4-ternatim 
aggregate. Ovarium obovato-turbinatum, angulis rotundatis obsoleté triquetrum, facie 
labellari subcomplanatum, crassum, pedicello dupld longius, ferrugineo-fuscum, circiter 
4 lineas longum, constans segmentis 6 in serie unicá collateralibus marginibus ad com- 
missuram attenuatis: segmentis costalibus placentiferis dupld angustioribus ; placentae 
incrassatze, extüs fascia olivaced manifeste, multiovulate. Stigma basin columnae 
occupans, ejusdemque faciei parallelum, constans superficie secernente viscidá convexá 
prominulá circumscriptione ovata, medio verticaliter lined obscura bipartiente percursa, 
basi marginibus columnae confluentibus cinctá, pallidé ferrugineá, sursüm in fasciam 
discolorem ligulatam nec viscidam inter margines columnze in rostellum excurrentem 
productá : rostellum transverse oblongum, truncatum, prominulum, simplex, inter dentes 
columnz laterales obliqué porrectum, subtüs callo incrassatum. Capsula coriacea, 
oblongo-ovoidea, turgida, circiter 8 lineas longa, 4-5 crassa, perianthii et columne reli- 
quiis marcidis coronata, trivalvis, rimis 6 verticalibus fenestratim, ut solitó, dehiscens, 
costis segmentis placentiferis dupló angustioribus. Semina scobiformia, minutissima, 
numerosissima, integumento alato utrinque attenuato reticulato laxo obtecta. 
This genus, named Gamoplezis from the cohesion of the perianth-segments, 
is casually noticed, from a communication in a letter, in Dr. Royle's * Illustra- 
tions,’ p. 364, and is thence inserted in Dr. Lindley's monograph on the order 
without a detailed character. It is allied both in habit and structure to the 
Gastrodia of Brown from New Holland, and to the Epiphanes Javanica of 
Blume, as described by that botanist; but it is sufficiently distinct from both 
in the cohesion of the labellar segment with the tube of the perianth ; and 
constitutes the only example hitherto ascertained in the order, so far as I am 
aware, of the union of all the divisions of both whorls of the floral envelope 
into a monophyllous perianthium. 
Gamoplexis appears to be a true parasite, but after a peculiar fashion, which 
disguises the habit. The tuberous rhizoma emits no root-fibres by which to 
fix itself on other plants, but is itself matted over by their slender rootlets, 
which ramify upon it in every direction, slightly imbedded in its surface, to 
Which they adhere with great tenacity, especially to the scarious margins of 
the abortive sheath-annuli, giving rise to the appearance of the plant being 
the subject of a parasitical growth rather than a parasite itself. This I observed 
in numerous instances ; but other cases occurred to me in which the surface 
of the tubers presented no appearance of the kind ; and Unger, in his memoir 
