246 Neue Litteratur. 



plant, which bears generically his name, it being specifically distin- 

 guished as L. spectabilis. As the plant seemed not to have been re- 

 discovered, I was pleasingly surprised, when within the last few days 

 I received as likely new from Ch. Moore, Esq. , F.L.S. , a flowering 

 specimen from the Sydney Botanic Gardens, accompanied by a note, 

 that he had received the plant for his conservatory from the Solomon- 

 Islands. Thus an opportunity was afforded me, to re-examine this 

 evidently rare plant, l can bear testimony to the general accuracy 

 of the illustration furnished at tab. 195 , fig. 1 and tab. 199 , C in the 

 ^Rumphia" , and also to the description given at p.p. 41—42. Some 

 details can however now be added to the latter; and this is all the 

 more desirable, as Mr. Bentham (B. & H., Gen. PI. III, 501), lately 

 expressed a doubt, whether the pollinia were correctly described, and 

 thus the genus one of validity. — The stem before me is fully IV2 

 foot long, bearing 6 transverse' scars; the leaves are nearly twice as 

 long, but not broader than those illustrated by Latour, numbering 5; 

 the raceme bears 10 flowers , which I find inodorous and resupinate, 

 as shown already by the published drawing, the labellum turning 

 upwards ; the latter in its lower portion is almost whitish , in its 

 Upper pale-yellow, but so copiously traversed by dark-purple veins, 

 as almost to assume that color, especially as the broad median line, 

 with its but very slightly elevated streaks is also dark-purple; the 

 Upper lobe of the labellum curls readily inward along the margin, 

 then assuming a hornlike shape ; the lateral lobes are clasping behind 

 the anther , the touching portions being connate for a short distance, 

 but only lightly so, seceding from each other on slight mechanic 

 pressure ; the two-furrowed callus near the junction of the 3 labellum- 

 lobes is whitish, and passes below into an equally callous plate of 

 quadrate shape, which fits contiguously to the gynostemium; the 

 anther is greenish, a very thm and narrow membrane turning upwards 

 at its base; the yellow ceraceous pollinia consist oftwopairs, coherent 

 into a roundish mass, dorsally slightly concave, frontally convex, the 

 pairs on pressure seceding, the two portions of each pair not quite so 

 readily separable, equal in length, placed longitudinally. — The main 

 characteristic , on which the genus rests, namely the supposed occur- 

 rence of only two simple pollinia, is therefore wrongly given, while 

 the minor note of the anterior unison of the lateral labellum-lobes is 

 also to some extent invalidated, as this coalescence is rather one of 

 coherence than actual concrescence. It will thus be best to reduce 

 Latouria to a section of Dendrobium, with which in all other respects 

 it generically agrees. Indeed Prof. M i q u e 1 (flora Ind. Batav. III, 645) 

 already surmised, that this plant should be regarded as a Dendrobium, 

 altho' he had no opportunity to confirm this by any original obser- 

 vations".] 

 Pereira Coutinho , Antonio Xavier , Apontamentos para estudo da 



flora transmontana. (Boletim annual Soc. Broteriana Coimbra. II. p. 129.) 

 Reichenbach, H. G. fli., Bulbophyllum Sillemianum n. sp. (The Gard. 



Chron. N. S. XXII. p. 166.) 

 Rony, G., Le Stembergia colchiciflora Waldst. et Kit. var. actenensis Guss. 



en Espagne, et le Lavatera moschata Mierg. en Portugal. (Bull. Soc. Bot. 



de France. 1884. No. 4.) 

 Sassenfeld, J., Trierische Flora. 8«. Trier (Lintz) 1884. Gart. M. 2,70. 



Vasey, G., New species of grasses. (Bull. Torrey Bot. Club New York. XL 



No. 6. p. 61.) 

 Wallier, E. W., .lamaica, its Orchids etc. (The Gard. Chron. N. S. XXII. 



p. 168.) 

 Wittniack, L., Aechmea nudicaulis Griseb. var. «f. distans Wittm. M. Abbild. 



(Wittmack's Garten-Ztg. III. p. 377.) 



Paläontologie : 

 Renanlt et Zeiller, Sur un nouveau genre de graines du terrain houiller 

 superieur. (Compt. rend. Acad. Paris. T. XCIX. No. 1.) 



