The distribution of the species is Oubangui-Chari, 
Uganda, Belgian Congo?, Angola, Northern Rhodesia, 
Nyasaland and Natal, which is similar to that of P. tes- 
sellata but less extensive. The species has not yet been 
found in the Upper Guinea area. 
Polystachya melanantha Sch/echter in Engler Bot. 
Jahrb. 26 (1899) 341. 
Polystachya ionocharis Kraenzlin in Engler Bot. Jahrb. 
28 (1900) 371. 
Judging by the determination slip on the type speci- 
men of P. tonocharis in the Berlin Herbarium, Kraenzlin 
considered these two to be conspecific. In this mono- 
graph (Fedde Repert. Spec. Nov. Beih. 89 (1926) 82, 
88, 93) published only a few years after he came to the 
above decision, he keeps them distinct. There are no 
floral differences and I cannot see the marked “‘hetero- 
blasty’’ and ‘‘Shomoblasty’’ which Kraenzlin considers to 
be the decisive difference. So far as can be seen from the 
type specimens the inflorescence develops in both cases 
from the young stem before the pseudobulb is formed. 
The section Grandiflorae, to which this species is re- 
ferred by Kraenzlin, is one of the least natural of all the 
sections proposed by him in his monograph. As a result 
of examination of most of the species included in it, many 
of them are found to belong to other sections. P. alpina 
Lindl. is better placed in sect. Calluniflorae; P. incon- 
spicua Rendle, P. Doggettii Rendle & Rolfe and P. gale- 
ata (Sw.) Reichb.f. (syn. P. grandiflora Lindl.) in sect. 
Cultriformes; P. Goetzeana Kraenzl., P. Lawrenceana 
Kraenzl. and P. kilimanjari: Reichb.f. (described for the 
first time in the monograph by Kraenzlin and possibly 
synonymous with P. Holstii Kraenzl.) in sect. Affines; 
P. refleca Lindl. in sect. Elasticae and P. hermesina 
Kraenzl. in sect. Superpositae. 
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